UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Linette Boisvert is a sea ice scientist and assistant lab chief in NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Cryospheric Sciences Branch who studies sea ice-atmospheric interactions in the rapidly changing Arctic. She will give the talk “It’s Complicated: The Complex Relationship of Cyclones on Arctic Sea Ice” as part of the Penn State Department of Geography's Coffee Hour talks.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 4, in 112 Walker Building on Penn State's University Park campus and via Zoom.
Arctic cyclones are strong storms that travel into the Arctic and are associated with changes to the temperature, moisture, surface energy budget, winds and precipitation. However, the timing, strength, location, and cumulative effects and impacts of these cyclones on the sea ice are not well established or straightforward. Previous studies have shown conflicting results that cyclone frequency and intensity have not necessarily changed over the past four decades from 1980 to 2020.
Boisvert’s research shows that these cyclones are responsible for bringing in the majority of snowfall that falls on Arctic sea ice and builds up the snowpack throughout the year. However, with a warming climate and given that the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere on Earth, it is hypothesized that the precipitation phase of these cyclones could be shifting from predominantly snow to more rain dominated. This could have profound effects on the sea ice survivability, especially if this ‘rainy’ cyclone season extends earlier in the spring, and later into the fall.
Boisvert has produced an Arctic-wide turbulent flux data set from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite to investigate how changes to the sea ice cover affect exchanges of heat and moisture between the ocean and atmosphere and ensuing changes to the local atmosphere. From 2018 to 2020 she served as the deputy project scientist for NASA’s largest and longest running airborne campaign, Operation IceBridge. During her time, she helped run three campaigns in both the Arctic and Antarctic.
Boisvert earned both her doctorate and master of science degrees in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from the University of Maryland. She earned her bachelor of science in environmental science from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.