Tag Archives: polar research

Listening to data

Have you ever thought about taking data points and creating music with them? This is exactly what Mark Ballora does.

Ballora, a Penn State associate professor of music technology, translates data into music — also known as data sonification. He does this in part to emphasize that data may be interpreted aurally as well as visually.

As described in an earlier post this week, Ballora sonified Penn State Polar Center director Eric Post’s research on phenology and caribou and muskox populations. Phenology is the study of the timing of seasonal events — such as the onset of spring flowering or the arrival of migratory birds.
Continue reading Listening to data

Polar Day showcases cool research & art

Spring is coming earlier in the year than it used to, according to the Arctic.

Well, the Arctic can’t talk — but according to data that ecologist Eric Post and his team have gathered in that region, spring is arriving about two to three weeks earlier than it did in 2002.

We learned about this and more at the fourth annual Polar Day, hosted by Penn State’s Polar Center on Tuesday, March 22. A variety of activities and presentations throughout the day highlighted several aspects of polar exploration and research. Presentations ranged from an ROV — remotely operated vehicle — demonstration to photography to musical interpretations of data from polar regions.  Continue reading Polar Day showcases cool research & art

Chill out & learn at Polar Day

Penn State’s Polar Center is home to world-renowned researchers who study “the unique beauty and increasingly urgent scientific and cultural value of the Arctic and Antarctic.”

The Polar Center has hosted Polar Day for several years, and this year it will be held on Tuesday, March 22, on Penn State’s University Park campus. The event is free and open to the public and features performances, lectures, and other events celebrating the natural and cultural value of the world’s polar regions.  Continue reading Chill out & learn at Polar Day