Frost flower 2013. // Photo Feiyue Wang
A fine winter for scientists: Frost flowers at SERF
No, it’s not an alien landscape. These are “frost blooms” on the water of the University of Manitoba’s Sea-ice Environmental Research Facility (SERF) at the Fort Garry Campus.
You may hate the deep freeze that we have right now, but Feiyue Wang, professor of environment and geography in the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources, and lead scientist at SERF, is absolutely delighted because these are perfect conditions for studies on how our climate is changing.
SERF’s main feature is a large, outdoor, saltwater pond equipped with sophisticated devices that monitor the pond’s sea ice formation.
By “growing” sea ice under controlled conditions, scientists better understand how sea ice forms and melts on polar oceans, and gain insight into the processes that regulate the exchange of molecules between the ocean and atmosphere. SERF, funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Manitoba Research and Innovation Fund and the University of Manitoba, is a research laboratory essential for understanding climate change.
(Scroll down or click through for more photos.)
Feiyue Wang collecting frost flower samples for study. // Photo by BeiBei Lu
Dec. 06, 2011: First pancake ice formed at SERF. // Photo by David Mosscrop
Photo by Juliana Kusyk
Photo by Fei Wang
IR photo by Fei Wang
Photo by Fei Wang
Photo by Fei Wang
If media wish to visit SERF, please contact Feiyue Wang at: 204-474-6250 or 204-223-3181, or email: wangf [at] ms [dot] umanitoba [dot] ca
Research at the University of Manitoba is partially supported by funding from the Government of Canada Research Support Fund.