Amber Whelsky is a PhD candidate under Dr. Mary Albert at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth. Her research is focused on improving our understanding of gas transport through the interconnected pore space of seasonal snow and polar firn. Through field studies,
laboratory measurements and modeling techniques, Amber seeks to determine how seasonal snow impacts the ability for CO2 to move from the soil to the atmosphere during the winter and also aims to understand how polar firn influences how long it takes for atmospheric gases to diffuse from the surface down to the glacial ice sheet. Within the glacial ice, these atmospheric gases are trapped within bubbles and understanding the age of the air inside of these bubbles is crucial to accurately reconstructing the paleoclimate. Amber’s work with seasonal snow
will ultimately provide critical knowledge on snowpack’s control on the wintertime carbon flux, a large but not well understood contributor to the annual carbon budget. She is passionate about the significant climate implications of her work and hopes to continue utilizing her engineering skills for environmental and climate applications in her future career.”
