UAF IPY postdoctoral fellows
CHRISTIAN PETRICH
by Jenn Wagaman, UAF Center for Research Services
PHYSICS
University of Otago
Dunedin, New Zealand
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH
To improve understanding and modeling of transport process in the sea ice, specifically the redistribution of carbon dioxide by sea ice
MENTOR
Hajo Eicken
UAF, Geophysical Institute, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
HOMETOWN
Lubeck, Germany
FAVORITE MOVIE
"I still can't stop laughing about Life of Brian."
Photo by Jim Barker
Photo by Jim Barker
Chris Petrich is a logical kind of guy. He seems to be drawn to the technical side of science quite naturally.
"I can remember that my parents used to tell me that I was a scientist even before I went to school," says Petrich. "They said I always had a technical way of looking at the environment, even when it came to things as simple as the moon. I suppose that's where it started."
So it may be only natural that Petrich has found himself using physics to understand global climate change. His project, which maps the processes by which nutrients and fluids move through sea ice, is based heavily in fluid dynamics.
Sea ice in the Arctic is made up of two main types: multiyear and first-year. Multiyear ice builds up over time, with ice remaining throughout the year, while first-year ice arrives seasonally with the winter and either melts the coming spring or becomes part of the multiyear ice.
"So things move up into the ice from the ocean, and things move down through the ice during melting," says Petrich. "If we understand the fluid exchange processes in multiyear sea ice and those same processes in first-year sea ice, then we can actually start to understand what changes will happen if multiyear ice is replaced by first-year ice in a warmer Arctic."
For many who have never lived in or studied the coastal areas of the Arctic, sea ice can seem like a vast, barren frozen world. But in fact, a closer look reveals a complex living system. The productivity of this ice in terms of biological growth and carbon transport can have major impacts on the food that arctic peoples rely on for their livelihoods.
It is for this reason that Petrich is hoping to use his models to gain a better understanding of sea ice and its relation to the ocean, atmosphere and environment. The young researcher is creating a model that will eventually provide small-scale insights into larger regional and global models seeking to shed light on long-term trends in climate systems.
"By working here at the University of Alaska Fairbanks I can draw on all sorts of incredible expertise. Biological, large-scale, small-scale, everything is here," says Petrich. "And the field work couldn't be easier. You can just hop on a regular plane and fly out to Barrow or wherever you want to go. The infrastructure here is easy."
Petrich's work will also provide an important glimpse of sea ice during a critical global time, and the information he gathers will be available to the next generation of scientists during the next IPY, much like the data of the past have done for him.
"Looking at the research from the last IPY 50 years ago really inspired me," says Petrich. "It inspired me to think in certain directions and I hope that 50 years from now somebody will look back on my research and what I've done and find that same inspiration."
Images courtesy Christian Petrich unless otherwise noted