{"id":572,"date":"2016-04-12T16:32:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T22:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/?p=572"},"modified":"2016-04-13T13:46:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T19:46:19","slug":"yesterdays-greenland-melt-a-troubling-precursor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/2016\/04\/12\/yesterdays-greenland-melt-a-troubling-precursor\/","title":{"rendered":"Yesterday’s Greenland melt — a troubling precursor?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0week from today, our FirnCover team<\/a> assembles in Kangerlussuaq for a month-long traverse across\u00a0Greenland’s vast interior ice sheet. \u00a0The majority of prep-work, cargo shipments and customs hassles are done. \u00a0A\u00a0page-long “ToDo” list remains\u00a0on my desk, the odds and ends of prepping science and tidying affairs before 5-6 weeks abroad. \u00a0But sometimes in the din of preparations, a moment forces me to take pause.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, April 11th, a high-temperature\u00a0pressure ridge settled over Greenland and began thawing in earnest, with 12% of the ice sheet experiencing melt. \u00a0It set records, breaking the previous record (the earliest day with \u226510% of the ice sheet melting) by more than three\u00a0weeks. \u00a0Small headlines have already started popping up:<\/p>\n

Greenland sees record-smashing early ice sheet melt<\/a><\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"http:\/\/sumo.ly\/hPdw<\/a><\/p>\n

Ever since the record 2012 melt completely shattered observational records<\/a><\/strong> for Greenland (breaking the previous 2010 record melt year<\/a>, after\u00a0the\u00a02007 record before that<\/a>, and did I also mention\u00a02005<\/a>, and\u00a02002<\/a>?), scientists have patiently taken\u00a0measurements and waited for the next “big one” to hit. \u00a0No one can predict the short-term weather with certainty, and it *could* happen that 2016 cools back down and reaches only modest melt\u00a0levels\u00a0through the rest of Spring and Summer. \u00a0But melt in Greenland, over this wide an area, this early<\/em> in the season, is not supposed to happen.<\/p>\n

We plan our work for\u00a0late April or early May, usually in the “winter maximum” window. Typically, we dodge the onset of Greenland’s high-elevation melt by at least several weeks. \u00a0Our drilling requires this.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0 Putting a warm, wet drill down a cold borehole (still -20\u00b0C from the previous winter’s cold) is a recipe for getting a $10,000 ice drill irrevocably stuck, far deeper than we could hope to dig and retrieve it. \u00a0We don’t like to lose $10K drills more than we need, so we avoid the melt season at all costs, even if it means arriving and working in -40\u00b0 temperatures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Drilling<\/a>

Drilling and logging, with a new partially-assembled FirnCover tower at Summit camp. Photo taken by Mike MacFerrin, 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

But sometimes nature has other plans. \u00a0The 2016 melt has beat us\u00a0by 2 weeks, with temps already\u00a0above freezing at two of our lowest stations\u00a0(1840 and 2100 meters above sea level). \u00a0Weather should\u00a0cool down again and freeze back up, and we’re hoping to encounter a cold, stable snowpack when we arrive. \u00a0But melt has started, and this worries us.<\/p>\n

This feels\u00a0eerily similar to our 2012 season, when low Arctic sea ice levels, warm Spring temperatures and low accumulation rates were precursors to a record-setting melt summer. \u00a0Those preliminary dominoes are all set again, right now. \u00a0I remember\u00a0our Twin Otter plane requiring 13 attempts to lift our team off the ice as daytime temperatures slowly turned the snow\u00a0into a soft slush field, on the 5th of May 2012<\/strong><\/em> at KAN-U. \u00a0It’s now the 12th of April 2016<\/strong><\/em>, and KAN-U started melting yesterday.<\/p>\n

\"2012<\/a>

2012 Field Team, waiting for a plane on an absurdly warm day. \u00a0May 5th 2012, KAN-U station.<\/p><\/div>\n

We plan\u00a0to install some of the most comprehensive measurements of Greenland’s surface mass balance (and its response to summer melt) currently seen anywhere on the interior ice. \u00a0If successful, we’ll be well-suited to capture and characterize this melt. \u00a0But as an expedition leader, early melt raises\u00a0red flags for the\u00a0work. \u00a0We still don’t arrive in Greenland until next week. \u00a0Scientific campaigns cannot be rescheduled on a week’s notice, so next Tuesday, our\u00a0FirnCover team<\/a> will\u00a0shake hands in\u00a0Kangerlussuaq\u00a0regardless. \u00a0With an April 23rd put-in date, we’re starting early<\/em> this year. \u00a0It may still work out just fine yet. \u00a0Or…<\/p>\n

We shall see.<\/p>\n

Melt or no, I\u00a0look forward to the team gathering in Kanger next week. \u00a0In the meantime, one eye stays glued on\u00a0the weather data. \u00a0FirnCover leader, just checking in, for what’s (so far) been an unusual Spring\u00a0in Greenland.<\/p>\n

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

A\u00a0week from today, our FirnCover team assembles in Kangerlussuaq for a month-long traverse across\u00a0Greenland’s vast interior ice sheet. \u00a0The majority of prep-work, cargo shipments and customs hassles are done. \u00a0A\u00a0page-long “ToDo” list remains\u00a0on my desk, the odds and ends of prepping science and tidying affairs before 5-6 weeks abroad. \u00a0But sometimes in the din of… 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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 21:05:08","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\/572","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=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":594,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions\/594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/firncover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}