#5 State of Research Prospectus

For the past couple months, I have been mulling over what kind of research should I do in the field of atmospheric science. I kept thinking what are my interests and what do I see myself doing. It has to be something that I enjoy and not minding the hard work behind it. Honestly, this literature review is a stepping-stone in finding what I want to do with my life. Since the snowstorm, I have notice my fascination with snow and ice so I looked further into it and discovered the field of cryosphere – the study of the Earth’s frozen environment. All these questions popped in my head like what are the dangers of global warming if Earth’s cryosphere were to shrink, what causes these global warming but the main concern of global warming is the rising of global sea level if and when the ice sheets melts. That’s where the research is going. Just recently, I found out that the largest mass of ice is at the West Antarctic Ice sheet. It holds so much ice and snow that it literally can transform the geography of our planet that we know today. Eureka! I want to know what would happen if the West Antarctica Ice Sheet melts. I think this is my experiment.

Truth be told, the research behind all this is very overwhelmingly difficult because it is extremely involved. The research needed to gather information comes from various sources in not only atmospheric science but other fields of study such as geology, geomorphology, oceanography, geographic information systems, remote sensing, chemistry and so on and so forth. This literature review is definitely an eye-opener because not everyone can do it and it takes work and training to do this sort of thing. This will not be easy but it will be fun learning experience!