Operation Ice Bridge

by Sci 5
Inspired by NASA Operation Ice Bridge, 5th Grade Science students have been designing original research, collecting and analyzing data. They will continue to share their research through this blog throughout the winter.

Our Operation Ice Bridge work continues...

Our testing rig: Vernier LabQuest with temperature and light intensity probes.

We are trying to learn about global warming and how it affects the polar ice caps. We are testing the albedo of different ground covers, including sand, snow, woodchips, grass, pavement, water, soil and ice. Albedo is the light that is reflected off of a surface. We are measuring albedo because we noticed that the air temperatures were different over different ground cover. We are trying to find out if the reason there are different temperatures is because there are different amounts of light reflected from surfaces. If there is a lot of reflected light, it might cause it to get warmer. If the snow and ice have such a high albedo, maybe that warms the air and adds to the melting of the polar ice. Because of global warming, the greenhouse gasses make it harder for the reflected heat to escape. The warm air gets trapped and melts the polar ice. We know from other work that cold air sinks. Could high albedo cause less melting? We are also wondering how the industrial countries in the Northern Hemisphere are affecting things. Are there more sources of greenhouse gasses in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere? Is there a difference in how the Arctic is being affected compared to the Antarctic?

Does albedo change the air temperature?
Does albedo change the melting rates of snow and ice?
Does albedo change as snow/ice melts?
Do different surface and air temperatures affect the albedo of snow/ice?

Maybe sand has such a high albedo because it is made of tiny crystals like snow and ice are... maybe snow (sparkly crushed up ice) works the same way... maybe it gets hot like sand does with the sun’s light...