This story is all too familiar to those who work on the ice. Good times! Mike… Read More
A week from today, our FirnCover team assembles in Kangerlussuaq for a month-long traverse across Greenland’s vast interior ice sheet. The majority of prep-work, cargo shipments and customs hassles are done. A page-long “ToDo” list remains on my desk, the odds and ends of prepping science and tidying affairs before 5-6 weeks abroad. But sometimes in the din of… Read More
Leading a scientific expedition is more about box cutters and budgets than inspiration. Another package arrived in the mail today, 12 rolls of Gorilla duct tape and 500 heavy-duty zip ties. The freight guys just dropped a 300-lb crate of batteries right outside my office door. Anyone know where the pallet jack went? (Seriously, I could use… Read More
One of the main things the FirnCover project studies is the way that increased meltwater has affected the densification of snow into ice on the Greenland ice sheet in a warming climate. In 2012 we made a discovery about the way that recent meltwater in parts of Greenland were rapidly expanding runoff on the ice… Read More
We have a C-130 scheduled at 10 this morning to take us to the ice. Breakfast at 7:45, ready-time at 9:00. The entire team is excited to get going, and get this work started!! Hooray!… Read More
It’s a universal truth in polar science. Since the FirnCover team has finished frantically preparing for the field, we’re at the mercy of the weather, the flight schedules, and the priority of other missions. All three have conspired this week and our team is instructed to “stand down” another day. It was originally due to weather, but the morning dawned clear… Read More
just 4 more left!… Read More
At long last, after months of preparation, our FirnCover team is finally meeting up. Max, Shane, Mike, Darren, Achim, Babis and Dirk are all here in Kanger, about to have our group safety check with the CPS staff. So who are these guys, anyway? It would seem introductions are overdue: Mike MacFerrin is a PhD… Read More
Two years ago in late May of 2013, I recall sitting at a tiny desk in the Kangerlussuaq International Science Support (KISS) station in Southwest Greenland. Our team had just finished an incredibly difficult and extremely productive field season on a long snowmobile traverse across the southern Greenland ice sheet. I had trouble sleeping that night,… Read More
