Scott Polar Research Institute
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] History
The Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) is centre for research into both Polar regions and glaciology worldwide. Founded in 1920 as the national memorial to Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his companions, who died on their return journey from the South Pole in 1912, it is part of the University of Cambridge, England and is a sub-department of the Department of Geography. It investigates a range of issues in both the environmental sciences, social sciences and humanities of relevance to the Arctic and Antarctic. It has around 60 academic, library and support staff, together with postgraduate students, associates and fellows attached to its research programmes.
Its polar library, which includes the Shackleton Memorial Library, has comprehensive holdings of scholarly books and journals on polar subjects and glaciology generally, with exceptional archival collections from the exploration of the Antarctic and Arctic. The ICSU World Data Centre for Glaciology, Cambridge (WDCGC) is funded by the Royal Society and is also located in the Library of the Scott Polar Research Institute. Its Museum holds a collection of artefacts (particularly from the Heroic Age of Exploration), paintings, drawings, photographs (including cinematographic film, lantern slides, and Daguerreotypes), and other material relating to polar history, exploration, science and art. The museum is freely open to anyone with an interest in polar regions.
The Institute also hosts the Secretariats of the International Glaciological Society and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.
[edit] Research at the SPRI
The Institute has several research groups investigating a range of issues in both the environmental sciences, social sciences and humanities of relevance to the Arctic and Antarctica:
[edit] Glaciology and Climate Change Group
Work involves both quantifying the state of the cryosphere through satellite remote sensing, and understanding the detailed processes involved with the aid of accurate field measurements and computer simulations. We have detected dramatic changes in both Arctic and Antarctic ice cover, including ocean melting of the Larsen Ice Shelf, rapid retreat of ice in western Antarctica, and increased summer melting in northern Canada. Together, these studies have contributed greatly towards our understanding of global climate change.
[edit] Glacimarine Environments Group
Work focuses on the linkage between ice-sheet dynamics and sediment delivery to the marine environment, and the patterns and processes of glacimarine sedimentation. This often involves the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of geophysical and geological evidence acquired from ice-breaking research vessels operating in the Polar seas.
[edit] Polar Landscape and Remote Sensing Group
Work includes research into high-latitude vegetation, and snow and ice cover as part of the group's wider interest in monitoring and understanding the processes that modify the environment of the polar and sub-polar regions, as well as the development of novel methods for investigating them. The aim is to develop an understanding of the phenomena of Arctic vegetation change and the processes that control them, from global to local scales. A substantial component of the work involves the development of new and robust techniques for measuring vegetation change using data from satellite remote sensing.
[edit] Polar Social Science and Humanities Group
The group is interdisciplinary, and covers the anthropology, history and art of the Arctic, with particular strengths in the religion, culture and politics of the Russian North, as well as research into the geographies of science, circumpolar governance (considering attempts to forge self-governing political regions and environmental management regimes and the relationship between community and territory), and institutions and public policy in the field sciences.
In addition, the Institute is part of the NERC Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling.
[edit] External links
 |
This science article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
