St. Louis, MO (KMOX) - Saint Louis University is one of five universities that will be studying permafrost under a grant from the US Department of Defense.
Vasit Sagan, Associate VP for geospatial science at SLU and Chief Scientist for Food Security and Digital Agriculture for the Taylor Geospatial Institute, is SLU's principal investigator on the project.
Why is the DoD interested in permafrost?
Changes in permafrost can impact climate, ecosystems, infrastructure, and the distribution of gravity -- which could impact global positioning systems. "which effect actually the accuracy of GPS position navigation timing, and as you know whenever you fly, or sail on a ship in the ocean, we rely on GPS."
Researchers will first simulate permafrost in the laboratory, then go on site. "It provides a kind of living laboratory to study climate because it appears to warming up... ...in a more visible way compared to other parts of the world."
A release from SLU explains, "The project will explore the physical and chemical properties of permafrost using remote sensing. The permafrost properties will be reviewed under current and potential environmental conditions. The DoD awarded the highly competitive five-year, $7.5 million overall MURI grants to 30 teams at 73 academic institutions earlier this month after the Army Research Office, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and Office of Naval Research solicited proposals in areas of strategic importance to the Department."
SLU's share is $1.3 million to study hyperspectral signatures and light polarization associated with the physical, chemical, electromagnetic, thermodynamic properties of permafrost under current and future climate conditions.
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