[image-36]Earth’s northern polar region, one of the most rapidly changing areas of our planet, is the focus of three recent NASA research campaigns and will be discussed in detail during a media teleconference at 3 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 16.

The airborne field campaigns will examine changing glacier elevations in Alaska, thawing permafrost and the impact of sea ice retreat on the Arctic climate.

NASA’s first campaign to study the link between sea ice retreat, clouds and the energy balance in the Arctic is underway, flying out of Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Arctic Radiation-IceBridge Sea and Ice Experiment (ARISE) is making flights over Arctic sea ice to measure ice, cloud properties and incoming and outgoing radiation.

NASA is wrapping up the third year of flights for the Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE), which is measuring the emission of greenhouse gases from thawing permafrost. Operation IceBridge-Alaska recently concluded its sixth year of flights measuring changes of Alaskan mountain glaciers.

The panelists for the teleconference are:

-- Tom Wagner, program scientist for cryospheric sciences in the Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington

-- Bill Smith, principal investigator for ARISE at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia

-- Charles Miller, principal investigator for CARVE at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California

Media can ask questions by telephone. To participate, reporters must contact Ed Campion at 301-286-0697 or edward.s.campion@nasa.gov and provide their media affiliation by 1 p.m. Sept. 16.

Media and the public can join the conversation on social media using #EarthRightNow, and ask questions using #askNASA.

For live streaming audio of the teleconference, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For more on NASA Earth science launches, research, and applications, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

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