Jump to content

Childhood Snow Days Transformed Linette Boisvert into a Sea Ice Scientist


NASA

Recommended Posts

  • Publishers

Linette Boisvert turned a childhood love of snow into a career as a sea ice scientist studying climate change.

Name: Linette Boisvert
Title: Assistant Lab Chief, Cryospheric Sciences Branch, and Deputy Project Scientist for the Aqua Satellite
Formal Job Classification: Sea Ice Scientist
Organization: Cryospheric Science Branch, Science Directorate (Code 615)

Linette Boisvert sits on a large light blue glacier with her arms stretched out to both sides.
“When it snowed, school was cancelled so I loved winter weather, and I was fascinated how weather could impact our daily lives,” said Linette. “One of my undergraduate classes had a guest lecturer talk about the Arctic and that is when decided that I wanted to become an Arctic scientist.”
Photo credit: NASA/Kyle Krabill

What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? 

As a sea ice scientist, I study interactions between the sea ice and the atmosphere. I’m interested in how the changing sea ice conditions and loss of Arctic ice are affecting the atmospheric conditions in the Artic. 

Why did you become a sea ice scientist? What is your educational background?  

I grew up in Maryland. When it snowed, school was cancelled so I loved winter weather, and I was fascinated how weather could impact our daily lives. One of my undergraduate classes had a guest lecturer talk about the Arctic and that is when decided that I wanted to become an Arctic scientist. This also coincided with the Arctic sea ice minimum in 2007, at the time, a record low.

In 2008, I got a B.S. in environmental science with a minor in math from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). I received my master’s and, in 2013, got a Ph.D. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park.

How did you come to Goddard?

My doctorate advisor worked at Goddard. In 2009, he brought me into Goddard’s lab to do my Ph.D. research. I became a post-doctorate in 2013, an assistant research scientist in 2016 (employed by UMD/ESSIC) and, in 2018, a civil servant.

Linette Boisvert turns to smile at the camera as she sits in the center of a plane behind the pilots. Both pilots are visible along with the airplane controls. Through the front window of the plane, clouds are visible.
Dr. Linette Boisvert is a sea ice scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Photo credit: NASA/Jeremy Harbeck

What is the most interesting field work you do as the assistant lab chief of Goddard’s Cryospheric Sciences Branch?

From 2018 to 2020, I was the deputy project scientist for NASA’s largest and longest running airborne campaign, Operation IceBridge. This involved flying aircraft with scientific instruments over both land ice and sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. Every spring, we would set up a base camp in a U.S. Air Force base in Greenland and fly over parts of the sea ice over Greenland and the Arctic, and in the fall we would base out of places like Punta Arenas, Chile, and Hobart, Australia, to fly over the Antarctic. 

We would fly low, at 1,500 feet above the surface. It is very, very cool to see the ice firsthand. It is so pretty, so vast, and complex. We would spend 12 hours a day on a plane just surveying the ice.

Being based out of Greenland is very remote. Everything is white. Everything looks like it is closer than it is. You do not have a point of reference for any perspective. It is very quiet. There is no background ambient noise. You do not hear bugs, birds, or cars, just quiet. 

Our team was about 20 people. Other people live at the base. The campaigns lasted six to eight weeks. I was there about three to four weeks each time. Many of the group had been doing these campaigns for a decade. I felt like I had joined a family. In the evenings, we would often cook dinner together and play games. On days we could not fly, we would go on adventures together like visiting a glacier or hiking. We saw musk ox, Arctic fox, Arctic hares, and seals. 

How did it feel to become the deputy project scientist for the Aqua satellite, which provided most of the data you used for your doctorate and publications?

In January 2023, I became the deputy project scientist for the Aqua satellite, which launched in 2002. Aqua measures the Earth’s atmospheric temperature, humidity, and trace gases. Most of my doctorate and publications used data from Aqua to look at how the sea ice loss in the Arctic is allowing for excess heat and moisture from the ocean to move into the atmosphere resulting in a warmer and wetter Arctic. 

I am honored. I feel like I have come full circle. The team welcomed me into the mission and taught me a lot of things. I am grateful to be working with such a brilliant, hardworking team.

Who is your science hero?

My father encouraged me to get a doctorate in science. My father has a doctorate in computer science and math. He works at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. I wanted to be like him when I was growing up. I came close, working at NASA, another part of the federal government. My mother, a French pastry chef, always kept me well fed.

Linette Boisvert sits on a bench inside of an airplane with her laptop on her lap. She is wearing a blue and white plaid shirt, black pants, and tennis shoes.
“We would fly low, at 1,500 feet above the surface,” said Linette. “It is very, very cool to see the ice firsthand. It is so pretty, so vast, and complex. We would spend 12 hours a day on a plane just surveying the ice.”
Photo credit: NASA/John Sonntag

My father is very proud of me. He thinks I am more of a superstar than he was at my age, but I do not believe it. My mother is also proud and continues to keep me well fed.

Who is your Goddard mentor?

Claire Parkinson, now an emeritus, was the project scientist for Aqua since its inception. When she retired, she encouraged me to apply for the deputy position. She had confidence in me which gave me the confidence to apply for the position. She is still always available to answer any questions. I am very thankful that she has been there for me throughout my career.

What advice do you give to those you mentor?

I recently began advising young scientists; one undergraduate student, two graduate students, and one post-doctoral scientist. We meet weekly as a group and have one-on-one meetings when appropriate. They share their progress on their work. Sometimes we practice presentations they are about to give. 

It is sometimes hard starting out to think that you are smart because Goddard is full of so many smart people. I tell them that they are just as capable when it comes to their research topic. I tell them that they fit in well with the Goddard community. I want to create a comfortable, respectful, and inclusive environment so that they remain in science. 

What do you do for fun?

I enjoy running and paddle boarding with my dog Remi, my long-haired dachshund. I enjoy reading. I love to travel and be around friends and family. But I do not enjoy cooking, so I do not bake French pastries like my mom. 

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I hope to continue doing research including field work. It would be great if some of my students finished their studies and joined my lab. I hope that I am still making people proud of me. 

What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.

Hard-working. Smart. Inquisitive. Adventurous. Kind. Happy. 

By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

A banner graphic with a group of people smiling and the text "Conversations with Goddard" on the right. The people represent many genders, ethnicities, and ages, and all pose in front of a soft blue background image of space and stars.

Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.

Share

Details

Last Updated
Sep 10, 2024
Editor
Madison Olson
Contact
Location
Goddard Space Flight Center

View the full article

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Similar Topics

    • By Space Force
      STARCOM held its inaugural Partnership Days bringing together leaders, educators, and innovators from academic institutions and the space-related private sector.

      View the full article
    • By European Space Agency
      Image: Snow returns to Mount Fuji View the full article
    • By NASA
      Learn Home Integrating Relevant Science… Earth Science Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science   3 min read
      Integrating Relevant Science Investigations into Migrant Children Education
      For three weeks in August, over 100 migrant children (ages 3-15) got to engage in hands-on activities involving blueberries, pollinators, and eDNA as part of their time with The Blueberry Harvest School (BHS). BHS is a summer school program for migrant children whose families work in Washington County, Maine during the wild blueberry harvest season. The program is hosted by Mano en Mano in Milbridge, Maine. This summer, University of Maine 4-H (part of the NASA Science Activation Program’s Learning Ecosystems Northeast team) was invited to deliver enrichment programs during the school day alongside a seasoned BHS employee – an educator from the Mi’kmaq community in what is now known as Nova Scotia.
      The goal of BHS is to meet the needs of youth by providing “culturally responsive, project-based learning while preventing summer learning loss and compensating for school disruptions among students” (Mano en Mano). Migrant families come to Downeast from Mi’kmaq First Nation communities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, southern states, and from within Maine, including Passamoquoddy communities in eastern Washington County and a Latino community in the western part of the county. Families stay to harvest blueberries anywhere from two to five weeks. With support from 4-H educators, youth surveyed the schoolyard for pollinators, investigated the parts of pollinators and flowers, and learned why blueberries are an important part of Wabanaki culture.
      “BHS really becomes a home for the children while they are here. I think one of the reasons is because they are encouraged to be proud of their identity and who they are – they get to be their authentic selves. It’s a neat space where teachers and youth are speaking Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, Spanish and English while supporting each other, and learning and experiencing new things.” — Gabrielle Brodek, 4-H Professional
      “After completing my second year helping at Blueberry Harvest School, I loved seeing the returning faces of the kids who have been coming year after year – the kids remember you and hug you and are sad when the season is over and BHS ends.” — Jason Palomo, 4-H Professional
      Resources and inspiration for these activities came from NASA Climate Kids, Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s Bees, Blueberries, and Climate Change learning module, National 4-H and ME Ag in the Classroom. On the last day youth experienced how to make a natural dye out of blueberries, a long-standing tradition in Native American culture. Our organizations continue to work together year-round, building stronger relationships and planning for Summer 2025!
      The Learning Ecosystems Northeast project is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AB94A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn
      Educator assisting two youth with paper folding instructions. Share








      Details
      Last Updated Nov 06, 2024 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms
      Earth Science Science Activation Explore More
      3 min read Bundling the Best of Heliophysics Education: DigiKits for Physics and Astronomy Teachers


      Article


      1 day ago
      3 min read Professional Learning: Using Children’s Books to Build STEM Habits of Mind


      Article


      2 days ago
      2 min read Sadie Coffin Named Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences/NASA Citizen Science Leaders Series Fellow


      Article


      2 days ago
      Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
      James Webb Space Telescope


      Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…


      Perseverance Rover


      This rover and its aerial sidekick were assigned to study the geology of Mars and seek signs of ancient microbial…


      Parker Solar Probe


      On a mission to “touch the Sun,” NASA’s Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft to fly through the corona…


      Juno


      NASA’s Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter in 2016, the first explorer to peer below the planet’s dense clouds to…

      View the full article
    • By Space Force
      The U.S. Space Force and Canadian Armed Forces have kicked off an Operations and Sustainment Phase which will provide Canada with six years of access to the Space Force’s Mobile User Objective System Satellite System.

      View the full article
    • By NASA
      4 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      Researchers think meltwater beneath Martian ice could support microbial life.
      The white material seen within this Martian gully is believed to be dusty water ice. Scientists believe this kind of ice could be an excellent place to look for microbial life on Mars today. This image, showing part of a region called Dao Vallis, was captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2009.NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona These holes, captured on Alaska’s Matanuska Glacier in 2012, are formed by cryoconite — dust particles that melt into the ice over time, eventually forming small pockets of water below the glacier’s surface. Scientists believe similar pockets of water could form within dusty water ice on Mars.Kimberly Casey CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 While actual evidence for life on Mars has never been found, a new NASA study proposes microbes could find a potential home beneath frozen water on the planet’s surface.
      Through computer modeling, the study’s authors have shown that the amount of sunlight that can shine through water ice would be enough for photosynthesis to occur in shallow pools of meltwater below the surface of that ice. Similar pools of water that form within ice on Earth have been found to teem with life, including algae, fungi, and microscopic cyanobacteria, all of which derive energy from photosynthesis.
      “If we’re trying to find life anywhere in the universe today, Martian ice exposures are probably one of the most accessible places we should be looking,” said the paper’s lead author, Aditya Khuller of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
      Mars has two kinds of ice: frozen water and frozen carbon dioxide. For their paper, published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, Khuller and colleagues looked at water ice, large amounts of which formed from snow mixed with dust that fell on the surface during a series of Martian ice ages in the past million years. That ancient snow has since solidified into ice, still peppered with specks of dust.  
      Although dust particles may obscure light in deeper layers of the ice, they are key to explaining how subsurface pools of water could form within ice when exposed to the Sun: Dark dust absorbs more sunlight than the surrounding ice, potentially causing the ice to warm up and melt up to a few feet below the surface.
      The white edges along these gullies in Mars’ Terra Sirenum are believed to be dusty water ice. Scientists think meltwater could form beneath the surface of this kind of ice, providing a place for possible photosynthesis. This is an enhanced-color image; the blue color would not actually be perceptible to the human eye.NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona Mars scientists are divided about whether ice can actually melt when exposed to the Martian surface. That’s due to the planet’s thin, dry atmosphere, where water ice is believed to sublimate — turn directly into gas — the way dry ice does on Earth. But the atmospheric effects that make melting difficult on the Martian surface wouldn’t apply below the surface of a dusty snowpack or glacier.
      Thriving Microcosms
      On Earth, dust within ice can create what are called cryoconite holes — small cavities that form in ice when particles of windblown dust (called cryoconite) land there, absorb sunlight, and melt farther into the ice each summer. Eventually, as these dust particles travel farther from the Sun’s rays, they stop sinking, but they still generate enough warmth to create a pocket of meltwater around them. The pockets can nourish a thriving ecosystem for simple lifeforms..
      “This is a common phenomenon on Earth,” said co-author Phil Christensen of Arizona State University in Tempe, referring to ice melting from within. “Dense snow and ice can melt from the inside out, letting in sunlight that warms it like a greenhouse, rather than melting from the top down.”
      Christensen has studied ice on Mars for decades. He leads operations for a heat-sensitive camera called THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) aboard NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter. In past research, Christensen and Gary Clow of the University of Colorado Boulder used modeling to demonstrate how liquid water could form within dusty snowpack on the Red Planet. That work, in turn, provided a foundation for the new paper focused on whether photosynthesis could be possible on Mars.
      In 2021, Christensen and Khuller co-authored a paper on the discovery of dusty water ice exposed within gullies on Mars, proposing that many Martian gullies form by erosion caused by the ice melting to form liquid water.
      This new paper suggests that dusty ice lets in enough light for photosynthesis to occur as deep as 9 feet (3 meters) below the surface. In this scenario, the upper layers of ice prevent the shallow subsurface pools of water from evaporating while also providing protection from harmful radiation. That’s important, because unlike Earth, Mars lacks a protective magnetic field to shield it from both the Sun and radioactive cosmic ray particles zipping around space.
      The study authors say the water ice that would be most likely to form subsurface pools would exist in Mars’ tropics, between 30 degrees and 60 degrees latitude, in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
      Khuller next hopes to re-create some of Mars’ dusty ice in a lab to study it up close. Meanwhile, he and other scientists are beginning to map out the most likely spots on Mars to look for shallow meltwater — locations that could be scientific targets for possible human and robotic missions in the future.
      News Media Contacts
      Andrew Good
      Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
      818-393-2433
      andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
      Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
      NASA Headquarters, Washington
      202-358-1600
      karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
      2024-142
      Share
      Details
      Last Updated Oct 17, 2024 Related Terms
      Mars Astrobiology Jet Propulsion Laboratory Explore More
      4 min read New Team to Assess NASA’s Mars Sample Return Architecture Proposals
      NASA announced Wednesday a new strategy review team will assess potential architecture adjustments for the…
      Article 20 hours ago 6 min read Christine Knudson Uses Earthly Experience to Study Martian Geology
      Geologist Christine Knudson works with the Curiosity rover to explore Mars — from about 250…
      Article 1 day ago 5 min read Snippet of Euclid Mission’s Cosmic Atlas Released by ESA
      Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
      Missions
      Humans in Space
      Climate Change
      Solar System
      View the full article
  • Check out these Videos

×
×
  • Create New...