Multimedia Reporting (Adler-Noland-Utsler)

David Braaten, professor of geography, and fellow faculty members of geography professors and students are readying equipment to be tested in Greenland at the end of the month for an upcoming expedition to analyze a possible hidden mountain range underneath Antarctica.

This advanced radar and image mapping equipment is extremely crucial to the Gamburtsev Aerogeophysical Mapping of Bedrock and Ice Targets project, better known as GAMBIT. According to Braaten, the project will be to map the topography of an underwater mountain range that could be the very start of the ice sheets that cover the earth.

“This is extremely crucial to the GAMBIT project, which will be verifying the last significantly hidden area on earth,” Braaten said.

The actual expedition to east Antarctica isn’t until December but its important to test the radar system in arctic like conditions beforehand. The project itself will be involving radar system that has been developed in-house at KU since 1993 known as MCRDS (Multi Channel Radar Depth Sounder). Overseeing the production of the radar system has been Dr. Fernando Rodriguez-Morales, who has worked closely with students on making sure this radar system is ready to go by the end of this month.

This radar system is a “VHF Ice Penetrating Radar.” Its similar to when you look at a window from a certain angle, you can see through the window partially through it. So we send a radio wave with part of it reflecting off the surface and bouncing back up while part of it goes through the ice until it hits the bedrock below. While flying over the surface at a constant speed, you can measure the times it took for the waves to bounce back from the surface and the bedrock. From this data, you can determine the exact location of each wave bouncing back and create topography of the underwater mountain range.

Improvements made on the radar system this past year include converting it from a single channel to multiple channels (six total). This helps to increase the amount of data the system can collect as well as improve the resolution of the images it maps out.

"You can measure the intensity of the reflection,but with this new radar we can have multiple antennae, similar to going from one pair of eyes to six eyes."

The KU group had issues with the electromagnetic interference because the other instruments were giving off radiation which was the radar system was picking up because its so sensitive, so we are taking measures to get rid of this.

Chris McMinn, Cory, NC, sophomore, has been the software developer for the radar system since June. He was initially brought on board to help out with re-mapping the old software but has since stayed on to insure the software holds up out in the field.

The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) will also deploying their latest version of their radar system parallel to the GAMBIT project’s testing this summer. In particular to the GAMBIT project, it's to see that everything is in optimal polar conditions.

“The main reason is that you only get one chance per year to do Antarctica, same with Greenland,” Rodriguez said.

The radar system will be mounted on the wings of a light aircraft and flown over various areas of interest in Greenland, whereupon it will pick up the reflections sent back to the system and collect the data.

Aircraft used for testing in Greenland
Photo: CReSIS

Michael Hughes, New Strawn graduate student, will be attending the coming out for the actual expedition. Hughes will be helping with signal processing, which involves interpreting the data that the radar gathers during the test runs.

"Its my first time going out into the field, so I really don't know what to expect," said Hughes. "But I think its pretty exciting to test out equipment in the field."

This project will be done in conjunction with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York City. Nick Frearson, GAMBIT Lead Engineer and senior staff associate at the observatory, said that their interest in working with KU came from the reputation of its MCoRDS radar system. Frearson has spent a lot of time at the CReSIS center over this past year, working with Dr. Rodriguez on building a duplicate of the MCoRDS radar system.

“It had problems with the information provided with the (original) MCoRDS initially, but we’ve built a pretty nice clone,” said Frearson.

On Columbia’s end, it will be using their geomagnetic mapping equipment to measure the magnetic field of the earth. Frearson said the GAMBIT group is scheduled to leave for Greenland on May 28, where they will be running tests for three weeks.

Initial flight path for testing in Greenland
Photo: Nick Frearson

Freason is currently in Calgary working on the installation of the radar system to the aircraft.

"It's what you might call one of the biggest projects I've ever worked on," Frearson said.

The earth’s climate has been changing, and as a result, more and more people are taking an interest in climate change and related topics like air pollution and the consequences of climate change. It has become a topic of debate during election years, and more people are looking at the earth’s climate, and things related to it, and doing studies on it. One such group is the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets.

“Our objective is to increase our understanding of ice sheets so that models can be developed that can reliably predict the contributions of ice-sheets to sea-level rise under prescribed climate changes in the future,” said Dr. David Braaten, the deputy director of the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets at the University of Kansas. It will take time to reach that goal, but those working at it are learning more about the ice sheets with each day.

Those who work in the center don’t only study here in Kansas. Many of them go on field research trips to Greenland, Antarctica, and the Arctic. CReSIS will soon be conducting airborne experiments in Greenland, and, towards the end of this year, field experiments in Antarctica.

On these trips, there are several objectives. Such goals include inventorying any and all major drainage basins and collecting data through various methods such as flights and radars. Another big objective revolves around identifying gaps in data.

“By identifying gaps in data, we will be able to further the advancement of technologies and determine what points our upcoming studies need to focus on,” said Dr. Braaten.

On such field research trips, they take measurements of such things as the surface elevation of ice sheets and the thickness of the ice sheets, among others. After their trips they log and archive their data, and create data charts and maps. For airborne research trips they create maps that show their flight lines, while for land research, they create charts and graphs of their data from such measurements as thickness. And so far, they are coming up with interesting results.

“This is not yet an official position of the National Science Foundation, but our scientists and engineers have seen solid numbers that show that ice sheets are discharging more fresh water into the oceans than has ever been witnessed in the past,” said Cameron Lewis, a University of Kansas graduate student who works at the center and may go on the upcoming field research trip to Greenland. It has also been found that the fresh water from the melting ice sheets not only contributes to rising sea levels, but that is will be responsible for the disruption of the North Atlantic Current, which is driven by a delicate balance between salt and water. CReSIS has also looked at sea level, which they believe could rise by up to a meter and a half by the end of this century, and has created maps for several different regions of the world that will be impacted the most by it.

Scientific research, from CReSIS and from other scientists, has also brought to light facts about the ongoing warming trend of the atmosphere. One of the main facts is that this recent trend of warming in the troposphere is more dramatic than what has been seen in history. It is a common opinion among many scientists and engineers that this recent heating of the troposphere is attributed to the unparalleled rise in the emissions of greenhouse gases.

“It’s not statistics, it’s pure numbers…numbers don’t lie,” said Audey Fusco, a member of CReSIS who is also a graduate student at KU.

CReSIS has recently developed a master robust signal processing program that will help process all of the data that is collected using depth sounding radars, and using this new tool as well as all the other resources available to them, those at CReSIS will continue to push towards their goal.

“I know that the work that I do at CReSIS directly affects the science community’s ability to create better ice sheet and climate models…and that makes it all worth it,” said Lewis.

Dr. Laird Forrest came to KU in hopes of helping real cancer patients. After a year at KU, he may be able to do just that in the near future. Dr. Forrest, assistant professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, has been researching more efficient and less harmful ways of delivering chemotherapy to cancer patients.

Dr. Forrest has a research team made up of two graduate students and two post-doctoral researchers. Together they are trying to combat different cancers by developing a successful localized chemotherapy.

“Right now cancer patients go in for surgery and the doctors do a pretty good job in removing most of the cancer,” Dr. Forrest said. “Afterwards the patient goes through chemotherapy or radiation which affects the whole body and makes the patient sick.”

Dr. Forrest is trying to localize the chemotherapy to just the affected portion of the body.

Taryn Bagby, Kansas City, Mo., graduate student

"Over 60 percent of women with localized breast cancer eventually develop distant late stage disease despite the excellent short-term prognosis with current treatments," Cai said.

In addition to Cai's research in breast cancer, the team is working on a number of other cancers . Dr. Forrest said they are working very closely with doctors from the KU Medical Center on colon cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and melanoma.

The research team is testing a number of different treatments. Some of the drugs are ready for animal testing. In this testing, they target a certain cancer in a rat or mouse and try to treat the animal in only the affected area.

"The polymer will shield the virus to transport in vivo and delivery specifically to prostate cancer cells," Xie, post-doctoral researcher, said.

Taryn Bagby, Kansas City, Mo., graduate student is working with melanoma. Bagby says the research is extremely difficult.

“The drug I’m working on is very, very unstable.” Bagby said. “Once you give it to a patient the drug becomes inactive after 15 minutes.”

Dr. Forrest confirms the difficulty in the research saying the research group makes constant pharmacy runs because of the instability of the drugs.

Despite the difficulty of the research, the team has seen some success. Their research in treating head and neck cancers is showing progress.

“We’re seeing extremely good results.” Dr. Forrest said. “The animal testing is showing excellent localization.”

Dr. Forrest believes the animal testing stage is nearly complete. He says the next step is phase 1 human testing.

“There are some barriers before we can get to that point such as getting approved by the FDA.” Dr. Forrest said. “But we are hoping we can start the phase 1 tests in early 2009.”

Lab mouse infected with different cancers