- Willi Dansgaard
Willi Dansgaard (born 1922) is a Danish
paleoclimatologist . He is Professor Emeritus of Geophysics at theUniversity of Copenhagen and a member of theRoyal Danish Academy of Science and Letters , theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences , theIcelandic Academy of Sciences , and theDanish Geophysical Society .Overview
He was the first paleoclimatologist to demonstrate that measurements of the trace isotopes
oxygen-18 anddeuterium in accumulatedglacier ice could be used as an indicator of past climate. Dansgaard was the first to note deuterium excess, or a water sample's deviation from the global meteoric water line (GMWL) in ice cores. He found that the kinetic differences between hydrogen-1 and deuterium related to the temperature of source water, and the absolute humidity.He was the first scientist to extract palaeoclimatic information from the American
Camp Century ice core fromGreenland drilled by the US armyCold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). Dansgaard also took a leading role in the drilling of the first ice core to bedrock for scientific reasons, theDYE-3 core from South Greenland, 1400 km away from the Camp Century. Confirming findings from the analysis of the Camp Century ice core, the DYE-3 climate profile documented the existence of rapid climate change, during and at the end of the last glacial. The repeated events of abrupt climate change during the glacial has named after Willi Dansgaard and his Swiss colleague,Hans Oeschger , and is known asDansgaard-Oeschger events .Awards
*
Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement , [http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/tylerprize/dansgard.html 1996]
*Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Crafoord Prize , 1995
*International Glaciological Society 's Seligman Crystal
*Swedish Society of Geography and Anthropology 'sVega medal External links
* http://content.aip.org/products/esva/Dansgaard_Willi.html - photo of Dansgaard,
Chester C. Langway andHans Oeschger
* http://isis.ku.dk/kurser/blob.aspx?feltid=60066 - Professor Willi Dansgaard, 'Frozen Annals, Greenland Ice Sheet Research' free pdf download of this inspiring 2005 autobiography by the pioneer of Greenland Ice Core drilling. Hard copies of the book were only printed in limited numbers and are not generally for sale.
* http://calspace.ucsd.edu/virtualmuseum/climatechange2/07_2.shtml
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