Established | 1 February 1961 |
---|---|
Research type | Cold-regions science and engineering |
Director | Joseph L. Corriveau [1] |
Address | 72 Lyme Road |
Location | Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S.A. 43°43′26″N72°16′23″W / 43.72389°N 72.27306°W |
03755-1290 | |
Website | www |
The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) is a United States Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center research facility headquartered in Hanover, New Hampshire, that provides scientific and engineering support to the U.S. government and its military with a core emphasis on cold environments. CRREL also provides technical support to non-government customers.
CRREL arose from a consolidation of three antecedent organizations whose purpose was to understand frozen ground, permafrost, snow and ice as factors which were important in strategic northern areas during the Cold War. In its first 25 years CRREL researchers contributed to the understanding of polar ice caps, permafrost, and the engineering technology for developing natural resources in cold climates, such as Alaska. More recently, CRREL researchers have made contributions to science in climate change, the understanding of wave propagation for sensor systems, the control of snow on structures and ice in navigable waterways, and the environmental remediation of military installations.
The stated mission of CRREL is to "solve interdisciplinary, strategically important problems of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Army, DOD, and the Nation by advancing and applying science and engineering to complex environments, materials, and processes in all seasons and climates, with unique core competencies related to the Earth's cold regions." [2]
The technical areas that CRREL staff reportedly engage in are: [3]
The main facility is located in Hanover, New Hampshire, north of Dartmouth College. The facilities include:
Other laboratories cover chemistry, biology, and civil engineering topics. [15]
CRREL maintains an office at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska, and an office at the Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District in Anchorage, Alaska. [13]
CRREL was formed on 1 February 1961 from a merger of the earlier Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment (SIPRE) [16] with the Arctic Construction and Frost Effects Laboratory (ACFEL).
CRREL's antecedents and establishment were chronicled in an official history. [17] In 1944-53 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers established three independent organizations that were the antecedents to CRREL. Within its New England Division, the Corps of Engineers founded the Frost Effects Laboratory to "coordinate research on the effects of frost on the design and construction of roads, airfields and structures in frost-affected areas," based in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1944. The Corps of Engineers' St. Paul (Minnesota) District established its Permafrost Division in 1944 to determine design methods and construction procedures for the construction of airfields on permafrost.
The Corps established SIPRE (the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment) in 1949, which moved to Wilmette, Illinois, in 1951. Its purpose was to "conduct basic and applied research in snow, ice and frozen ground." In 1953, the Corps merged the Frost Effects Laboratory and Permafrost Division of the St. Paul District to establish ACFEL (the Arctic Construction and Frost Effects Laboratory) in Boston. In 1959, SIPRE researchers participated in the establishment of Camp Century in Greenland to study technical and scientific issues with a facility, based on the Greenland Ice Cap. Having built a new facility for the combined SIPRE and AFCEL organizations, the Corps established CRREL on 1 February 1961 in Hanover, New Hampshire.
During its first quarter century, CRREL researchers and staff were active in the Arctic, Antarctica, Alaska and the Great Lakes, providing climatic history data, addressing resource extraction issues and extending winter navigation.
In 1966, CRREL researchers successfully drilled through the Greenland ice cap to a depth of 4,550 feet (1,390 m). The effort took three years, but provided a continuous ice core that represented more than 120,000 years. This extended the ability of scientists to interpret climatic history and became an early source of information about global climate change. In 1968, the same CRREL team was the first to penetrate the Antarctic ice cap, after drilling through over 7,100 feet (2,200 m) of ice, providing a climatic record at a second location on the globe. [17] [18]
The 1967 discovery of oil north of Alaska's Brooks Range raised two basic questions that CRREL was positioned to answer as a consultant to participating oil companies: how to extract oil from frozen terrain, permafrost, or from under the perennially frozen Beaufort Sea, and how best to transport the crude oil to the continental U.S. for refining and consumption.
CRREL staff members participated in the exploration of two transportation options, the use of an ice-breaking oil tanker, and the use of an over-land pipeline that would cross much of Alaska over regions of permafrost. As for the Beaufort Sea, CRREL researchers conducted studies of the properties and behavior of arctic sea ice, which would present a problem for off-shore drilling operations. [19] CRREL researchers were active participants in both voyages of the icebreaking oil tanker SS Manhattan to assess the feasibility of the sea transport option. At the same time, CRREL engineers reviewed and advised the federal inspector of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. During the construction of the pipeline, CRREL researchers studied the engineering implications of foundations and roadways over permafrost and ice. [17] [20]
In the 1970s CRREL supported a Corps of Engineers initiative to extend navigation through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway throughout the winter. They developed methods to address icing of locks and the clogging of waterways with floating ice that included booms, bubblers, and coatings of locks. [17] [21]
CRREL played a role in assisting the U.S. Air Force to establish [22] and maintain a system of Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line facilities during the Cold War era. In 1976, a CRREL researcher was instrumental in the moving of a 10-story-high, 3,300-ton DEW Line facility on the Greenland Ice Cap from a foundation that had been compromised by the movement of the ice on which it was built to a new foundation. [23] In 1984, CRREL personnel completed their survey reports for 31 sites of the new North Warning System that replaced the DEW line. [17] [24]
A continuing scientific exchange between CRREL and Soviet cold regions research institutions began in 1972, these included the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in Leningrad and Permafrost Research Institute in Yakutsk. [17]
CRREL's second 25 years saw the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War and a shift in funding that reduced the emphasis of direct appropriations from Congress to a greater reliance on reimbursement for research from CRREL's customers, as evidenced by the sponsorship of its technical reports. [25] Customers funding CRREL research included various components of the U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy. In addition, civilian agencies turned to CRREL for research answers, including the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA. In addition, a variety of private organizations funded CRREL research to solve problems that they faced. CRREL's list of technical reports lists 27 topical categories, covering science and engineering. [26]
CRREL continued to grow its capability to serve the U.S. military with programs in signal propagation that would facilitate the detection of enemy movements via infrared imaging, radar, [27] acoustics [28] or seismic [29] sensors in any meteorological conditions. It served the environmental needs of the U.S. Army by facilitating the identification and clean-up of contaminants on training lands, due primarily to partially detonated explosives [30] or unexploded ordnance (UXO). [31] Other researchers addressed mobility issues with vehicles over snow and muddy terrain. CRREL researchers participated in defining tactical runway requirements for the C-17 military transport aircraft. [32]
CRREL staff continued to make a mark in polar research, both in the Arctic and Antarctic. In the Arctic, CRREL researchers were active in modeling shipping in the Northern Sea Route [33] and the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) experiment, conducted in the Arctic Ocean from October 1997 to October 1998 to provide polar input to global climate models. [34] [35] Other researchers performed traverses of Antarctica and Greenland to collect data, pertinent to global climate change. [36] In 2010, a CRREL researcher was co-chief scientist on another icebreaker-based scientific mission, called "Impacts of Climate Change on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment" or ICESCAPE, to determine "the impact of climate change on the biogeochemistry and ecology of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas." [37]
Other CRREL researchers developed ways to upgrade and maintain the research facilities of the U.S. National Science Foundation in Antarctica, including the design and construction of a new South Pole Station and developing criteria to allow modern aircraft to land on snow runways. [38] CRREL staff explored and helped develop a new overland supply route across the Ross Ice Shelf over the Antarctic Range and the Antarctic ice cap to lower the cost of supplying the South Pole Station. [39] [40] In 2016, CRREL research civil engineers designed, built and tested a new snow runway for the McMurdo Station, called "Phoenix". It is designed to accommodate approximately 60 annual sorties of heavy, wheeled transport aircraft. [41]
In its Corps of Engineers Civil Works mission, CRREL researchers developed innovative ways to avoid ice jams and databases to address the widespread occurrence of such problems. [42] A substantial ice engineering facility was built to support modeling of these problems. A remote-sensing and GIS (geographic information system) facility and organization were established to better employ the resources of satellite imagery and mapping of information to address problems worldwide. [43] Another major facility, the Frost Effects Research Facility, was built to study problems associated with airfields and roadways, subject to freeze-thaw. An automated loading machine was acquired to simulate the passage of vehicle and aircraft tires on pavements. [44] In building technology, researchers helped develop statistical means to identify snow and icing loads throughout the United States [45] and standards for measuring heat loss, [46] [47] roof moisture detection, [48] and frost-protected shallow foundations. [49]
In October 1999, CRREL became a member of an umbrella organization of Corps of Engineers laboratories, called the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). The consolidation of seven laboratories, the Coastal and Hydraulics, Environmental, Geotechnical and Structures, and Information Technology Laboratories in Vicksburg, Mississippi; the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, Illinois; CRREL in New Hampshire; and the Topographic Engineering Center in Alexandria, Virginia, established the ERDC in four geographic sites around the country. [50]
Originally, CRREL cold-room facilities used trichloroethylene (TCE) as a refrigerant. At the time there were few known environmental hazards attributed to TCE. Subsequently, TCE has been identified as a carcinogen. In 1970, an industrial accident resulted in a spill of approximately 3,000 gallons of TCE. In 1978, TCE was introduced into the ground via an experimental well. After the 1990 discovery of TCE in groundwater, CRREL embarked on a remediation plan, approved by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES), with assistance from the U.S. Army Toxic and Hazardous Materials Agency and the Corps of Engineers New England Division. NHDES reports that CRREL no longer stores TCE on site and the remediation of TCE in the groundwater is subject to monitoring in test wells. [51] According to an Army press release cited in the local newspaper, [52] the Army expanded monitoring of TCE at other locations on the CRREL campus and found some elevated readings in 2011. Thereafter, they initiated a monitoring well and soil sampling program to map the concentrations of the substance on the site. The information gained should lead to a new cleanup strategy for the site, according to the 2012 report. [53] Army environmental specialists have detected TCE at neighboring residential and school properties. [54] [55]
The Army Research and Development Achievement Award is provided to distinguished researchers working within the Army laboratory system. Some notable CRREL recipients were: [17]
As a laboratory, CRREL received Army awards for excellence in 1975 and 1978. [17] In 1991 and 1994 CRREL won the Army Laboratory of the Year award for excellence. [60] [61] In 1997 the laboratory won the overall Army Laboratory of the Year award. [62] After joining ERDC in 1999, CRREL has been a consistent contributor of accomplishments that allowed ERDC became a frequent winner of the Army Research Laboratory of the Year award, five times in its first eight years. [63]
Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor that deposits onto a freezing surface. Frost forms when the air contains more water vapor than it can normally hold at a specific temperature. The process is similar to the formation of dew, except it occurs below the freezing point of water typically without crossing through a liquid state.
The cryosphere is an all-encompassing term for the portions of Earth's surface where water is in solid form, including sea ice, lake ice, river ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, and frozen ground. Thus, there is a wide overlap with the hydrosphere. The cryosphere is an integral part of the global climate system with important linkages and feedbacks generated through its influence on surface energy and moisture fluxes, clouds, precipitation, hydrology, atmospheric and oceanic circulation.
Permafrost is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two years or more: the oldest permafrost had been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. While the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below a meter, the deepest is greater than 1,500 m (4,900 ft). Similarly, the area of individual permafrost zones may be limited to narrow mountain summits or extend across vast Arctic regions. The ground beneath glaciers and ice sheets is not usually defined as permafrost, so on land, permafrost is generally located beneath a so-called active layer of soil which freezes and thaws depending on the season.
In environments containing permafrost, the active layer is the top layer of soil that thaws during the summer and freezes again during the autumn. In all climates, whether they contain permafrost or not, the temperature in the lower levels of the soil will remain more stable than that at the surface, where the influence of the ambient temperature is greatest. This means that, over many years, the influence of cooling in winter and heating in summer will decrease as depth increases.
Polar ecology is the relationship between plants and animals in a polar environment. Polar environments are in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Arctic regions are in the Northern Hemisphere, and it contains land and the islands that surrounds it. Antarctica is in the Southern Hemisphere and it also contains the land mass, surrounding islands and the ocean. Polar regions also contain the subantarctic and subarctic zone which separate the polar regions from the temperate regions. Antarctica and the Arctic lie in the polar circles. The polar circles are imaginary lines shown on maps to be the areas that receives less sunlight due to less radiation. These areas either receive sunlight or shade 24 hours a day because of the earth's tilt. Plants and animals in the polar regions are able to withstand living in harsh weather conditions but are facing environmental threats that limit their survival.
The Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is a US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) research and laboratory organization. The headquarters is located in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the site of an antecedent organization, the Waterways Experiment Station.
The International Permafrost Association (IPA), founded in 1983, is an international professional body formed to foster the dissemination of knowledge concerning permafrost and to promote cooperation among individuals and national or international organisations engaged in scientific investigation and engineering work related to permafrost and seasonally frozen ground. The IPA became an Affiliated Organisation of the International Union of Geological Sciences in July 1989.
Drunken trees, tilted trees, or a drunken forest, is a stand of trees rotated from their normal vertical alignment.
Arctic ecology is the scientific study of the relationships between biotic and abiotic factors in the arctic, the region north of the Arctic Circle. This region is characterized by two biomes: taiga and tundra. While the taiga has a more moderate climate and permits a diversity of both non-vascular and vascular plants, the tundra has a limited growing season and stressful growing conditions due to intense cold, low precipitation, and a lack of sunlight throughout the winter. Sensitive ecosystems exist throughout the Arctic region, which are being impacted dramatically by global warming.
Camp Fistclench was a U.S. Army research camp on and inside the Greenland Ice Cap 200 miles (320 km) east of Thule Air Base. It was in use from 1957 to 1960. It served to test techniques used at the much larger Camp Century.
Camp TUTO was a major U.S. Army operated research camp at the foot of the Greenland ice cap, 18 miles (29 km) east of Thule Air Base. It operated from 1954 to 1966, with revisits for follow-up research.
Pegasus Road is an 18-mile (29 km) long road of dirt and packed snow constructed by the United States Antarctic Program on Ross Island and the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The trip along the road from McMurdo Station to Pegasus Field takes approximately 45 minutes in a "Delta" wheeled vehicle, although on occasion high temperatures have damaged the runway and caused the road surface to deteriorate enough to lengthen the trip to two hours.
The Geospatial Research Laboratory is a component of the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), a US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) laboratory organization whose mission is to "Provide science, technology, and expertise in engineering and environmental sciences in support of our Armed Forces and the Nation to make the world safer and better." The laboratory is colocated with the Army Geospatial Center in the Humphreys Engineer Center adjacent to Fort Belvoir. The headquarters is located in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the site of an antecedent organization, the Waterways Experiment Station. GRL conducts geospatial research, development, technology and evaluation of current and emerging geospatial technologies that will help characterize and measure phenomena within the physical (terrain) and social (cultural) environments encountered by the Army. GRL research areas and capabilities include terrain analysis and reasoning; passive and active spectral signature analysis; fluorescence; photogrammetry; terrain visualization; precision surveying and mapping; image analysis; data management; geographic information systems; data/image fusion; and spatio-temporal reasoning and numerical analysis.
Hans Röthlisberger was a Swiss earth scientist and glaciologist best known for his work on glacier hazards and their prevention, glacier geophysics and subglacial hydrology.
Herbert T. Ueda was an American ice drilling engineer.
Scientific ice drilling began in 1840, when Louis Agassiz attempted to drill through the Unteraargletscher in the Alps. Rotary drills were first used to drill in ice in the 1890s, and thermal drilling, with a heated drillhead, began to be used in the 1940s. Ice coring began in the 1950s, with the International Geophysical Year at the end of the decade bringing increased ice drilling activity. In 1966, the Greenland ice sheet was penetrated for the first time with a 1,388 m hole reaching bedrock, using a combination of thermal and electromechanical drilling. Major projects over the following decades brought cores from deep holes in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
Syngenetic permafrost growth is a mode of the growth of permafrost whereby additional material is deposited to a permafrost site during freezing conditions, causing the permafrost layer to build upwards. It is cited as an efficient mode of permafrost growth, compared with heterogenetic permafrost growth, which occurs when freezing temperatures penetrate into previously unfrozen ground of uniform composition. Lunardini gives the basic formulas for permafrost generation under both modes.
Max Clifton Brewer (1924–2012) was an Arctic scientist, geophysicist, geological engineer, environmentalist, educator, and philosopher, and is best known for his expertise in the scientific field of permafrost. He was the longest-serving director (1956-1971) of the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory (NARL) in Utqiaġvik, Alaska where he established and managed the NARL ice stations in the Arctic Ocean. From 1971-1974 he served in the gubernatorial cabinet of William A. Egan as the first commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
A Rodriguez well is a type of well envisioned by Swiss glaciologist Henri Bader of Rutgers University and developed by engineer Raul Rodriguez of the United States Army for economical harvesting of drinking water in polar areas. The project began as a subproject of the Army's Camp Century base in Greenland, created as a demonstration for affordable ice-cap military outposts or bases for scientific research.
Mary Remley Albert is an American earth scientist who is a Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth College. She studies snow physics and transport phenomena. She is executive director of the US Ice Drilling Program.