News
12/12/17 - New peer-reviewed paper published in The Cryosphere - "Glaciological settings and recent mass balance of Blåskimen Island in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica"
As part of a project led through the Norwegian Polar Institute, Dr. Brown worked with lead author Vikram Goel and colleague Kenichi Matsuoka to publish this paper which estimates the mass balance and glaciological settings of Blåskimen Island, an ice rise in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. This island of grounded ice, located between the Fimbul Ice Shelf and the Jelbart Ice Shelf, appears to be a stable feature which mass balance estimates suggest is thickening at a rate of 0.12-0.37 m of ice equivalent per year over the last decade.
Aesir Consulting would like to congratulate Vikram Goel on his first published peer reviewed journal article! The full paper can be found here.
Aesir Consulting would like to congratulate Vikram Goel on his first published peer reviewed journal article! The full paper can be found here.
3/2/17 - New peer-reviewed paper published in The Cryosphere - "Liquid water content in ice estimated through a full-depth ground radar profile and borehole measurements in western Greenland"
In conjunction with the University of Montana, Aesir Consulting used multi-offset ground-based GPR with common-offset and borehole measurements to estimate the liquid water content of a region of the ablation area in western Greenland. We estimate electromagnetic propagation velocity of the ice body by inverting reflection travel times from radar data. Our inversion is constrained by ice thickness measured in boreholes and by positioning of a temperate–cold ice boundary identified in boreholes. Electromagnetic propagation velocities are consistent with a depth-averaged wetness of ∼ 0.5–1.1 %. The inversion indicates that wetness within the ice varies from < 0.1 % in an upper cold layer to ∼ 2.9–4.6 % in a 130–150 m thick temperate layer located above the glacier bed. Such high wetness should yield high rates of shear strain, which need to be accounted for in glacial flow models that focus on the ablation zone of Greenland. This high wetness also needs to be accounted for when determining ice thickness from radar measurements. The final version can be found here.
4/26/16 - Application to build Tongue River Railroad dismissed by Surface Transportation Board!
Today the Tongue River Railroad Company's application to build a rail line between proposed coal and Miles City, in Southeastern Montana, was dismissed by the Surface Transportation Board. The sole purpose of this rail line was to transport coal from proposed mines in the Tongue River Valley to export terminals on the west coast (many of which are also proposed projects). Coal leaving these terminals would have ended up being burned in China and other Pacific Rim nations, even though the market for coal in these nations is decreasing rapidly.
Part of the application for the new rail line was a Draft Environmental Impact Statement which, in part, attempted to describe the emissions impact of the proposed mine on the global environment. Aesir Consulting LLC was hired through Power Consulting Inc. and the Northern Plains Resource Council to detail the problems of using the Integrated Planning Model (IPM) to determine the emissions impact of increased coal production from a single source such as Arch Coal's proposed Otter Creek Mine (as well as other mines proposed in the region with an estimated total of 72 million total tons of potential coal production). In short, we found that the IPM is not designed to solve the problem of the effects of adding energy sources to the market. The reason for this is that the IPM does not account for elasticity of demand since demand for electricity is an input (i.e. it is a constant). This is a problem because it violates a fundamental economic principle that can be summed up as: if prices for a commodity decrease, the consumption (demand) for that commodity increases. For example, when fuel prices decrease, people drive more. Although the market for the proposed coal production is decreasing, production of coal from the Tongue River Valley would have stimulated increased consumption in Pacific Rim nations. Unfortunately, emissions impacts of increased coal consumption in any region has a global effect. This effect was ignored by the Surface Transportation Board's Office of Environmental Analysis with their use of IPM.
Our full assessment of the misuse of the IPM can be found here.
Ultimately, the Surface Transportation Board's decision was based on the insolvency of Arch Coal and the seemingly non-existent future of coal as a viable source of energy. We at Aesir Consulting are proud to have participated as a small player in this fight against the unnecessary production of coal. We congratulate the Northern Plains Resource Council on their victory in this 38 year battle to keep the Tongue River Valley in the possession of the farmers and ranchers in the region.
Part of the application for the new rail line was a Draft Environmental Impact Statement which, in part, attempted to describe the emissions impact of the proposed mine on the global environment. Aesir Consulting LLC was hired through Power Consulting Inc. and the Northern Plains Resource Council to detail the problems of using the Integrated Planning Model (IPM) to determine the emissions impact of increased coal production from a single source such as Arch Coal's proposed Otter Creek Mine (as well as other mines proposed in the region with an estimated total of 72 million total tons of potential coal production). In short, we found that the IPM is not designed to solve the problem of the effects of adding energy sources to the market. The reason for this is that the IPM does not account for elasticity of demand since demand for electricity is an input (i.e. it is a constant). This is a problem because it violates a fundamental economic principle that can be summed up as: if prices for a commodity decrease, the consumption (demand) for that commodity increases. For example, when fuel prices decrease, people drive more. Although the market for the proposed coal production is decreasing, production of coal from the Tongue River Valley would have stimulated increased consumption in Pacific Rim nations. Unfortunately, emissions impacts of increased coal consumption in any region has a global effect. This effect was ignored by the Surface Transportation Board's Office of Environmental Analysis with their use of IPM.
Our full assessment of the misuse of the IPM can be found here.
Ultimately, the Surface Transportation Board's decision was based on the insolvency of Arch Coal and the seemingly non-existent future of coal as a viable source of energy. We at Aesir Consulting are proud to have participated as a small player in this fight against the unnecessary production of coal. We congratulate the Northern Plains Resource Council on their victory in this 38 year battle to keep the Tongue River Valley in the possession of the farmers and ranchers in the region.
4/15/16 - New peer-reviewed paper published in The Cryosphere - "Constraining variable density of ice shelves using wide-angle radar measurements"
The geophysical methods employed in this paper are used to constrain the depth/density profile of firn within and without ice shelf channels in the Roi Baudouin ice shelf, Antarctica. Aesir Consulting LLC led the initial processing of the data using open source software to determine the EM propagation speed of the firn and ice layers of the ice shelf. The lead author of this paper, Dr. Reinhard Drews, improved upon the processing with a novel algorithm that uses a prescribed firn density curve to constrain a ray based traveltime inversion for the common-source multi-offset radar data. We congratulate Dr. Drews and all of the authors of this manuscript on their most recent publication. The final version can be found here.
10/21/15 - Paper on firn density differences within and without ice shelf channels is under review and open for discussion.
Aesir Consulting LLC worked with lead author Dr. Reinhard Drews on analyzing wide angle radar data to determine the density of firn inside of ice shelf channels. The goal of this project is to determine the ice thickness from freeboard ice thickness, which is affected by the firn density profile at the surface. This paper is under review for the open access journal, The Cryosphere. The manuscript is located here, for interactive public discussion for a period which will end on 12/16/15.
9/15/15 - Review paper on ice rises published in Earth-Science Reviews!
Aesir Consulting LLC is listed as the current affiliation for Dr. Joel Brown in a paper published in the peer reviewed journal Earth-Science Reviews. This collaborative effort was led by Dr. Kenichi (Kenny) Matsuoka of the Norwegian Polar Institute and Dr. Richard Hindmarsh of the British Antarctic Survey. This paper is a review of the current knowledge of 'islands' of grounded ice, called ice rises, within the ice shelves of Antarctica. Aesir Consulting LLC congratulates Kenny and Richard and extends thanks for leadership in the non-trivial task of organizing 20 scientists from varied sub-fields of glaciology and geology in the compilation of this paper. Dr. Brown of Aesir Consulting LLC is proud to have had the opportunity to be one of the authors on this manuscript. The full manuscript can be found here.
Aside: the photo in this header was taken by Dr. Brown from the edge of Blåskimen Ice Rise, within the Fimbul Ice Shelf, Antarctica.
Aside: the photo in this header was taken by Dr. Brown from the edge of Blåskimen Ice Rise, within the Fimbul Ice Shelf, Antarctica.