{"id":12,"date":"2015-02-13T00:04:05","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T00:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/?p=12"},"modified":"2015-02-13T12:30:45","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T12:30:45","slug":"and-so-it-begins-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/2015\/02\/13\/and-so-it-begins-again\/","title":{"rendered":"And so it begins again…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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. \u00a0Our team\u00a0had just finished an incredibly difficult and extremely productive field season on a long snowmobile traverse across the southern Greenland ice sheet<\/a>. I had trouble sleeping that night, and was posting my thoughts on our hastily assembled blog at the time. \u00a0I recall vividly the sense of obligation and urgency\u00a0I felt.<\/p>\n

\"ACT-13\"

ACT-13<\/p><\/div>\n

From ACT-13’s\u00a0“Success! \u00a0The work is half-finished”<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m sitting\u00a0at a\u00a0tiny wooden desk\u00a0as the\u00a0midnight sun\u00a0illuminates\u00a0my\u00a0window on the\u00a0second floor of the KISS (Kangerlussuaq Int’l Science Support) station\u00a0in\u00a0southwest Greenland.\u00a0\u00a0I have trouble sleeping without the noise\u00a0of wind—my second\u00a0day off the ice and I still find the indoor silence disconcerting—so\u00a0I occupy my waking hours wading through a month of\u00a0backlogged e-mails.\u00a0\u00a0A\u00a0recent press release from my parent institution CIRES<\/a>\u00a0announces the results of a recent study by a fellow colleague and friend, Dan McGrath, who states\u00a0that Greenland’s dry snow zone\u00a0will likely disappear within the next several decades if current\u00a0warming continues.\u00a0 It’s a result not unexpected\u00a0to glaciologists here. \u00a0Among other things, he notes that “more work needs to be done to untangle these impacts.”<\/address>\n
\n
\"ACT-13

ACT-13 Team<\/p><\/div>\n<\/address>\n

\n
\"Katabatic

Katabatic winds, ACT-13<\/p><\/div>\n<\/address>\n

Greenlandic weather\u00a0threw us seven innings of\u00a0curve balls this field season, but as I pore through pictures of our past month’s foray, I find myself a bit amazed at the richness of the data set we\u00a0accumulated under even the worst of conditions.\u00a0\u00a0Over a dozen logged, measured and sampled\u00a0firn cores.\u00a0 A hundred and fifty kilometers of continuous high-resolution GPR (ground penetrating radar), ready to process and\u00a0uplink to a coincident and vast airborne dataset.\u00a0 An entirely\u00a0new suite of stations transmitting data\u00a0to improve satellite mass balance measurments… just\u00a0to name few.\u00a0 Every core we pulled up and\u00a0every radar profile we collected points to unmistakable rapid changes happening in Greenland’s\u00a0snow and ice at every elevation we visited.\u00a0 We see it.\u00a0 We know it.\u00a0 But right now it’s\u00a0as if we’re\u00a0the only ones who do.\u00a0 The work isn’t done yet.<\/strong>\u00a0 Samples need to be analyzed, core densities digitized, radar algorithms written, processed and\u00a0calibrated.\u00a0 Plots need to\u00a0be\u00a0created, maps generated; results submitted, reviewed and published.\u00a0 We realize we still have\u00a0as many\u00a0questions\u00a0as\u00a0we do answers, and we’re already discussing the needed foci of future campaigns (funding proposals need to be written and submitted, campaigns planned, logistics organized… rinse and repeat)<\/strong>.<\/address>\n

(read more<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s now almost two years later, and an exhausting two years it’s been. \u00a0The measurements we took have helped us characterize some of the vast and rapid changes happening in the interior\u00a0of Greenland’s ice<\/a>, just under the surface. \u00a0The instruments we installed still transmit daily results from the frigid interior of Greenland. \u00a0These measurements help illuminate one of the largest sources of uncertainty in measuring mass changes of the\u00a0Greenland ice sheet. \u00a0A year ago we worked feverishly to outline the importance of this work in preparation for NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite mission<\/a> (scheduled for launch in 2017) that, when successful, will provide\u00a0the world’s most detailed and extensive measurements ever\u00a0collected of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets (among other things). \u00a0Our work will significantly narrow the signal correction\u00a0uncertainties from ICESat-2’s flagship ATLAS instrument, allowing it to achieve the extraordinary precision for which it was designed. \u00a0Our case was convincing to NASA, who\u00a0took us up on the offer. \u00a0The work begins anew.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Installing the EKT station tower, 2360 m a.s.l., May 2013<\/p><\/div>\n

Our mission\u00a0is dubbed “FirnCover<\/strong>“, an acronym (as all things are) for “Firn<\/strong> Co<\/strong>mpaction Ve<\/strong>rifcation and R<\/strong>econnaissance.” \u00a0Our Spring Campaign is\u00a0the Arctic Circle Traverse 2015, or ACT-15<\/strong>. \u00a0Our mission (should we choose to accept it) is to help NASA and the scientific community nail down one of the largest sources of known uncertainty in measuring the mass of the Greenland ice sheet from space, now\u00a0and for years to come.<\/p>\n

\"ACT-15\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s proven a\u00a0tremendous effort already, and it’s only just ramping up now. \u00a0I received 15 e-mails in my Inbox while writing this. \u00a0Two more of our shipments just arrived at the mail room. \u00a0We have work to do! \u00a0I hope you’ll join\u00a0us as we bring you along for the ride. \u00a0Onward…<\/em><\/p>\n

– Mike<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. \u00a0Our team\u00a0had 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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preparations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 08:13:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/31"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}