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Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research

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INSTAAR conducts interdisciplinary research and education on the past, present, and future of Earth systems in service of a just and thriving world.

 

With deep roots in polar regions, alpine environments, and Quaternary history, today we embrace a global perspective on bellwethers of environmental change.

Explore our research

 

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INSTAAR in the field

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News

The Arctic could become ‘sea-ice free’ within a decade

The Arctic could see summer days with practically no sea ice as early as the next couple of years, according to a new study led by Alexandra Jahn. The findings suggest that the first ice-free day in the Arctic could occur over 10 years earlier than previous projections.

CU Boulder Today

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Valerie Morris, in puffy fur-lined parka, carries a section of the GISP2 ice core in a wooden tray at the NSF Ice Core Facility.

Old core, new data: Students unlock knowledge about past Arctic climates

Tyler Jones and Valerie Morris are leading a group of students in resampling the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2) core to investigate mechanisms of abrupt climate change and extreme events of the past. The original measurements (e.g., water isotopes) numbered a few thousand while the new measurements will create millions of data points. Read more
CU Boulder incoming PhD student Paloma Siegel carries an autonomous aircraft (~10 foot wingspan) away from an Alaskan landing strip after a flight

Flight Ops supports INSTAAR research in Alaska (CU Boulder Public Safety)

For the second summer in a row, the CU Boulder Division of Public Safety's Flight Operations department is supporting important campus research in Alaska, as part of the Navigating the New Arctic project (principal investigator: Tyler Jones), which is being managed by researchers in the Stable Isotope Lab of INSTAAR. Read more
The Imja Glacier was in 1960 one of the largest in the Khumbu region and is now a lake. Photos by Erwin Schneider / Alton Byers

Las fotos de cien años de escaladas al Everest muestran el impacto del deshielo: “Es la escena de un crimen” (El Diario)

Scientists, climbers and local communities come together to warn of the impact of warming on the Himalayas, which is evident when comparing photographs taken over time, and puts the lives of millions of people at risk. Many of the most revealing photographs of the valleys near Everest have been taken by Alton Byers, who has been repeating the photos made by pioneering climbers for years to show the spectacular changes taking place in this region. Read more
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Rewetting the sponge

Tim Seastedt discusses how low-cost landscape restoration actions in the Front Range of Colorado can foster a more diverse and absorbent environment.

Cool Boulder

 

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Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship 

Sarah Crump, in purple coat, stands in front of a dramatic Baffin Island landscape of colorful tundra suddenly broken by towering cliffs.

Thanks to the efforts of Sarah's family and 1200+ generous donors, we met our first funding goal in May 2023 and created an endowment that supports a CU Boulder grad student every summer. Sarah's summer fellowship gives a boost to their study of Earth or environmental science in Arctic, Antarctic, or alpine regions. It also acts as a lever for equity and underserved communities. Our next goal is to extend summer support into the school year. Please consider contributing.

Learn about Sarah & her fellowship  Contribute to Sarah's fellowship

INSTAAR newsletter

Become part of our community and get a peek into our research & creative work, 3-4 times a year.

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  • Labs, groups, & programs
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Labs & Groups

  • Advanced Laser Technology for Atmospheric Research (Fried)
  • Amino Acid Geochronology (Miller)
  • AMS Radiocarbon Preparation & Research (Lehman)
  • Coastal Oceanography Modeling (Moriarty)
  • Core Processing & Sedimentology (Roth & Anderson)
  • Cryosphere and Surface Processes (Overeem et al.)
  • Diatoms (Spaulding)
  • Ecohydrology (Barnard)
  • Hydroecology Science & Engineering (Gooseff) ↪︎
  • ICP-MS Trace Metals (Marchitto)
  • Micropaleontology (Jennings)
  • Mountain Hydrology (Molotch, Musselman, & Rittger)
  • Mountain Limnology Lab (Oleksy) ↪︎
  • Ocean Biogeochemistry (Lovenduski)
  • Organic Geochemistry (Sepúlveda)
  • Organic Matter Spectroscopy (McKnight)
  • Polar & Paleoclimate Modeling (Jahn)
  • Stable Isotope Lab
  • Suding Lab - plant community ecology ↪︎
  • Taylor Lab - evolutionary biology & genetics of birds ↪︎


Programs

  • Center for the Geochemical Analysis of the Global Environment (GAGE)
  • Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS)
  • Consortium for Capacity Building (CCB)
  • DFO - Flood Observatory
  • Dynamic Water critical zone project
  • McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research (MCM LTER)
  • Mountain Research Station (MRS)
  • Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research (NWT LTER)

Research

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    • AAAR journal ↪
    • Theses and dissertations
    • Occasional Papers

People

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Diversity

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    • Summer scholarships
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  • Our actions
  • Addressing problematic behavior


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Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research

INSTAAR

         

Email instaar@colorado.edu
Phone (303) 492-6387
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Mailing Address
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
University of Colorado
Campus Box 450
Boulder, CO 80309-0450 USA

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Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
University of Colorado
4001 Discovery Drive
Boulder, CO 80303 USA

INSTAAR acknowledges that it is located on the traditional territories and ancestral homelands of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ute and many other Native American nations. Their forced removal from these territories has caused devastating and lasting impacts. Full CU Boulder land acknowledgment

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