The MERLIN Project
MERLIN is an educational prototype under the larger pedagogic topic called Active-Learning Curriculum.
The goal of MERLIN is to prepare the next generation
This specific prototype leverages extreme conditions experienced during polar field work. For effectiveness, we choose one of the most rapidly changing large-scale surface areas on the Earth, namely, the Arctic sea ice.
Scaling the topic down to a curriculum level, this project focuses on
To keep the topic manageable,
Because access to sea ice is so limited, especially for students, we confine our studies to the seemingly simple problem of quantifying the relationship between
MERLIN’s research efforts integrate information between ground-truth support and underwater, airborne, and spaceborne platforms engaged in sea ice monitoring.
First field tests are scheduled for first half of March (4-7 prep, 8-16 thickness survey) in Barrow, Alaska to test the overall concept and feasibility of the program.
Cathleen Geiger, Lead PI
Jesse Samluk, Ph.D. Student
Renato Kane, MS. Student
Scott Sorensen, Ph.D. Student
March 4-16, 2013
(alphabetical order by institution directly contributing to field support):
Arctic Collaborating Environment (ACE): Gina Wade
Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL): Jacqueline Richter-Menge Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE-UD): James Kolodzey, Chandra Kambhamettu Geography, CEOE: Tracy DeLiberty, Colleen Leithren
International Arctic Buoy Program (IABP), University of Washington (UW): Ignatius Rigor
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL): Son Ngheim
National Ice Center (NIC): Pablo Clemente-Colón, Sean Helfrich, and Bethany McDonald
Naval Academy (USNA): John Woods and Gina Henderson
Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Stanford University: Todd Valentic