Science

Kevin Schaefer is a senior scientist studying the impacts of climate change on permafrost. He uses models, remote sensing, and in situ observations to study permafrost dynamics in a warming climate. Schaefer uses physical models to predict how carbon dioxide and methane released from thawing permafrost might amplify warming due to the burning of fossil fuels, then uses economic models to estimate the associated costs. Schaefer uses models to estimate potential releases from destabilized methane hydrates in thawing subsea permafrost in the continental shelf off Alaska and Siberia.

Shari Fox has over 25 years of experience working with Inuit on environmental research, from community-led research and monitoring, to large-scale international Arctic collaborations. Her research focuses on supporting Indigenous self-determination in research and co-production of knowledge. She has worked remotely from Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River) Nunavut for many years and now works from both Nunavut and a base in Alberta, Canada.

Walt Meier is a senior research scientist at NSIDC. His primary role is supporting the NASA Snow and Ice Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) at NSIDC as the DAAC scientist. In this role he provides scientific support to all NASA products at the NSIDC DAAC. His research focus is on sea ice remote sensing, particularly using passive microwave data, and tracking Arctic climate change.

Julienne Stroeve is a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, specializing in remote sensing of the crysophere. She is also affiliated with the University of Manitoba during a seven-year tenure there as a Canada C150 Chair, and also as a Professor at University College London. Her research groups focus on improving sea ice retrievals using satellites, the impacts of sea ice loss on extreme weather events and northern communities, and future projections of ice conditions.

Elizabeth Cassano is a Senior Associate Scientist affiliated with NSIDC, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and the Department of Atmospheric Science (ATOC) at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research is focused on Arctic synoptic climatology and putting individual weather and extreme events in climatological context. She also evaluates the climatology of Arctic cyclones and their impacts on the surface state.

Andy Barrett is a senior associate scientist at NSIDC. His research focuses on the Arctic climate system, in particular on sea ice and terrestrial snow cover. He has an interest in applying machine learning methods to studying these components of the cryosphere. He has also studied mid-latitude glaciers and their role in river basins, using model output, satellite imagery, and surface meteorological observations for this research. Barrett is an advocate of open science, working to make the products of research accessible, understandable and reproducible.