UW-ESS Faculty Directory

Earth and Space Sciences Faculty

Eric Steig
Associate Professor

Office: Johnson Hall 251
Phone: 206-685-3715
Fax: 206-543-3836 (shared)
E-Mail: steig*
* = @ess . washington . edu
Lab: 206-543-6327 Web Page: ISOLAB

Eric is on sabbatical this year at the Centre Européen de Recherche et d'Enseignement des Géosciences de l'Environnement (CEREGE), Université Paul Cézanne, Aix-En-Provence, France.

News

Success at WAIS Divide. The team of researchers led by Ken Taylor at the Desert Research Institute successfully completed the first 580 m of drilling at the West Antarctic Ice Divide site. WAIS Divide will result in the highest resolution long ice core record ever obtained (or obtainable!) from Antarctica. Several UW faculty, and a great number of students are involved in this project, include myself, Becky Alexander, and Shelley Kunasek in ISOLAB. See the January 2008 press release from NSF, here

Look for our compilation of isotope data and isotope modeling results from the ITASE program, including more than 700 sites from Antarctica. Paper is by Valérie Masson and others, in press in Journal of Climate; it should be in the May 2008 issue. Look also for my review in Bulletin of the American Meterological Society of the book Thin Ice about colleague and fellow ice-core glaciologist Lonnie Thompson. It is in the January 2008 issue.

Success on Mount Waddington, British Columbia's second highest peak. We obtained a 65 m core at Combatant Col in 2006, and have now demonstrated that well preserved annual layers exist. Some background information is at our project website, here.

Now available on line: Lora Koenig's paper in JGR-Earth Surface Processes. (Koenig LS, Steig EJ, Winebrenner DP, Shuman CA, A link between microwave extinction length, firn thermal diffusivity and accumulation rate in West Antarctica, Journal of Geophysical Research).

Our paper, Antarctic temperatures over the past two centuries from ice cores. (Schneider DP, Steig EJ, van Ommen TD, Dixon DA, Mayewski PA, Jones JM & Bitz CM) Geophysical Research Letters, August 30th, 2006 was chosen for an "Editor's highlight"

Areas of Interest:
Stable isotopes, glaciology, climatology

Research Groups:
Analytical Geochemistry, Glaciology , Climate and Paleoclimate

Other UW Academic Affiliations:
Quaternary Research Center, Program on Climate Change, UW Earth Initiative

Background & Current Research:
Associate Professor Eric Steig completed his PhD in Geological Sciences at UW in 1995, was research assistant professor at the University of Colorado from 1996-1998 and Assistant Professor at at the University of Pennsylvania before returning to UW in 2001. Along with Roger Buick in ESS, Becky Alexander in Atmospheric Sciences, and Peter Ward in Biology/ESS, he directs the ISOLAB, a state-of-the art isotope geochemistry facility involving research ranging from climate and atmospheric chemistry to geobiology.

Steig teaches environmental earth science, isotope geochemistry and paleoclimatology at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. With his graduate students, postdocs, and lab staff, he uses various methods to develop time series of past environmental changes as a context for understanding contemporary and possible future change. Current focus areas include temperature and snow accumulation variability in Antarctica, through ice core measurements, satellite remote-sensing; development and application of methods to measure the nitrogen and oxygen isotope concentrations in atmospheric "odd-N" species (HNO₃, NO₂, NO); and acquisition of ice cores from alpine regions. Research support is from the National Science Foundation's Polar and Atmospheric Sciences Programs, and from the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS).

He has been a contributor to science planning for glaciological and solid-earth geosciences in the polar regions, to international efforts to track pollution in the Arctic, and to archive and sample allocation at the National Ice Core Laboratory. He is a current member of the NSF-funded Ice Core Working Group and the steering committee for the International Partnerships in Ice Coring Sciences (IPICS) initiative. Steig served as Associate Editor (2001-2004) and Senior Editor (2005-2008) of the journal Quaternary Research, and continues as Special Editor for occasional solicted papers of interest. In addition to this service to the scientific community, Steig is active in public education, and was a founding member of the influential climate science web site, "RealClimate.org". He has given numerous public lectures, most recently at the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve on the Washington State coast.

More information on Steig's research and possible research opportunities for students, is available at the lab web pages and the research group web pages listed above.

Selected Recent Publications:
Complete publication list available upon request.

Steig, EJ. Alarming or Alarmist? A review of Mark Lynas's "Six Degrees". Conservation Magazine, January, 2008.
Koenig LS, Steig EJ, Winebrenner DP, Shuman CA, A link between microwave extinction length, firn thermal diffusivity and accumulation rate in West Antarctica, Journal of Geophysical Research 2007.
Schneider DP, Steig EJ, van Ommen TD, Dixon DA, Mayewski PA, Jones JM, Bitz CM. Antarctic temperatures over the past two centuries from ice cores. Geophysical Research Letters 33, L16707, doi:10.1029/2006GL02705.
Steig EJ. Climate change: the south-north connection. Nature 444: 152-153 (2006).
Steig EJ. Climate may not be linked with circulation slowdown. Nature 439 Correspondence (2006).
Steig EJ, Mayewski PA, Dixon DA, Frey MM, Kaspari SD, Schneider DP, Arcone SA, Hamilton GS, Spikes VB, Albert M, Meese D, Gow AJ, Shuman CA, White JWC, Sneed S, Flaherty J, Wumkes M. High-resolution ice cores from US ITASE (West Antarctica); development and validation of chronologies and estimatation of precision and accuracy. Annals of Glaciology 41: 77-84 (2005).
Steig EJ. "Antarctic Peninsula Climate Variability: Historical and Paleoenvironmental Perspectives" [book review] Antarctic Science 16: 359-360 (2004).
Hastings MG, Steig EJ, Sigman DM. Seasonal variations in N and O isotopes of nitrate at Summit, Greenland: Implications for the study of nitrate in snow and ice cores. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, 109 D20306, doi:10.1029/2004JD004991 (2004).
Jacobel RW, Welch BC, Steig EJ, Schneider DP. Glaciological and climatic significance of Hercules Dome, Antarctica: an optimal site for deep ice core drilling. Journal of Geophysical Research Earth Surface in press (2005).
Roe GH & Steig EJ. Characterization of millennial-scale climate variability. Journal of Climate 17: 1929-1944 (2004).
Rupper SB, Steig EJ & Roe GH. On the relationship between snow accumulation at Mt. Logan, Yukon, and climate variability in the North Pacific. Journal of Climate 17(24): 4724-4739 (2004).
Schneider DP, Steig EJ & Comiso J. Recent climate variability in Antarctic from satellite-derived temperature data. Journal of Climate 7:1569-1583 (2004).
Schneider DP, Steig EJ & van Ommen T. High resolution ice core stable isotopic records from Antarctica: towards interannual climate reconstruction. Annals of Glaciology 41: 63-70 (2005).
Taylor KC, White JWC, Severinghaus JP, Brook EJ, Mayewski PA, Alley RB, Steig EJ, Spencer MK, Meyerson E, Meese DA, Lamorey GW, Grachev A, Gow AJ, Barnetti BA. Abrupt late glacial climate change in the Pacific sector of Antarctica. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 7-15 (2004).
Waddington ED, Conway H, Steig EJ, Alley RB, Brook EJ, Taylor KC, White JWC. Decoding the dipstick: thickness of Siple Dome, West Antarctica, at the Last Glacial Maximum. Geology 33: 281-284 (2005).
Winebrenner DP, Steig EJ & Schneider DP. Relationship between surface air temperatures and microwave brightness temperatures in Antarctica. Annals of Glaciology 39 346-350 (2004).

Last Modified:May 26th, 2006

Earth and Space Sciences
(Geology, Geophysics, Geological Sciences)
University of Washington
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