Greenland Ice Sheet5
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Connecting the past, the present and the future to understand climate
Over 100,000 years of Arctic climate data has been linked in the last two days of Ice Bridge missions. When you see the names DYE2, EGIG, GRIP, Ice Bridge and MABEL you view the elite list of Arctic science projects that deliver(ed) groundbreaking climate information through the last 50 years, and if all goes as…
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Leveraging the Moment
Time takes on a new meaning in the field. Every moment is compressed in order to gain maximum yield. Applying human accounting, field time is limited by available resources, personnel, and funds, while using nature’s accounting the limits shift to windows of weather, and seasonality for ice phenomena. In the field both human and nature…
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On the Heels of History
Perhaps the most natural connection between the explorations of the past and today’s carefully planned scientific missions is through the hand of fate and the crush of nature.
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The Climate Irony Catches Greenland
In mid-season, the Ice Bridge mission is assessing land ice along the Greenland perimeter and interior, to measure the impact of a changing climate in one of the most remote places on Earth.
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A Focus on the Thinning Northwest Greenland Glaciers
Blog by Hakim Abdi, LDEO Satellite measures showing thinning ice on the Northwest Greenland glaciers prompted Operation IceBridge to include annual flights over this region. The area runs along the Baffin Bay coast, which is often covered in fog and low lying clouds forcing delays and reschedules. With the end of our season in sight…
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Measuring Gravity From a Moving Aircraft Requires a ‘Gravi-God’!
From: Joël Dubé, Engineer/Geophysicist at Sander Geophysics, OIB P-3 Gravity Team One of the instruments used in Operation IceBridge (OIB) is an airborne gravimeter operated through a collaboration between Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and Sander Geophysics of Ottawa, Canada. People from other instrument teams have been heard to call it a gravity…
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Witnessing time – from 445 million year old rocks exposed in the Fjords to ~4 thousand year old small ice caps
By Hakim Abdi, LDEO. My first flight on the P3 and the scenery was nothing short of breathtaking. The science mission involved flights in the north over the Steensby glacier that passes through Sherard Osbron Fjord, and Ryder glacier constrained by the Victoria Fjord. In northeast Greenland we overflew the Hagen glacier and the Flade…
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Dealing with Mother Nature
Working in the poles we are constantly reminded of our dependence on meteorology, and this project has dealt us a variety of different weather considerations. The most obvious is the weather we experience at the base. Storm season in Thule lasts from the 15th of September to the 14th of May; in other words encompassing…
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Transporting Ice From Greenland’s Deep Interior
The North East Ice Stream is a fast-flowing glacier transporting ice from deep in the interior of the Greenland Ice Sheet out to the coast (see image showing a deep penetration into central Greenland). When it reaches the coastline it feeds 79 N Glacier. This area is heavily crevassed, evidence of the rapid ice flow.…
