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Christopher Shuman
Science Investigator
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland
After degrees in geology and geosciences from the Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Shuman became a postdoctoral researcher at Penn State in the Earth System Science Center. This was followed by appointments with the National Research Council and Universities Space Research Association at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. His research interests include monitoring the current climate system over polar ice sheets with field and remote sensing data and how paleoclimate variations are preserved in polar snow and ice.
Ice sheets play a critical role in the global climate system. Not only do they currently store enough water to raise global sea level 10s of meters, but they affect the climate system directly and even act as a recorder of climate system temperature and atmospheric composition. In order to understand their current and past impact on climate, both direct glaciological and indirect meteorological assessments offer valuable opportunities. My current and planned work will integrate improved meteorological and glaciological observations to produce an enhance characterization of accumulation and temperature patterns over the Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Sheets. Field work continues in conjunction with NASA’s Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment and NSF’s ITASE project.
