Open AccessAntarctic Projects Stymied by the Shutdown
Author(s) -
Showstack Randy
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1002/2013eo440003
Subject(s) - shutdown , government (linguistics) , principal (computer security) , plan (archaeology) , oceanography , environmental science , window of opportunity , environmental resource management , geography , engineering , geology , archaeology , computer science , philosophy , linguistics , aerospace engineering , nuclear engineering , operating system
The U.S. federal government shutdown coincided with the beginning of the Antarctic austral summer research window, and many scientists told Eos they are deeply concerned about the impacts on research there. John Priscu, a lead principal investigator with the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project in West Antarctica, said the government shutdown “threw us a curve that I did not anticipate or plan for.” Pricsu, who has spent 30 seasons working in Antarctica under federal funding, said that a hole in the project's long‐term data set “will have a major impact on the models we are developing to examine climate‐induced changes” in Antarctic ecosystems.