I had a two hour interview with another of the two Chinese journalists aboard this afternoon. They have readerships in the hundreds of thousands in China, 20,000 per hour. The conversation was the most interesting I’ve had on the topic of global climate change, humans role in it, the aspect of what is fair now that the US has accumulated the largest blame at a time that China is outpacing the US as the single largest national driving agent of climate change. What’s fair may be what derails the climate policy negotiations in Copenhagen this December. The journalist asked a broad range of important questions. I had detailed responses. The discussion felt all the more real with Beijing currently experiencing 42 deg. C heat wave a typhoon in the south and drought in the north.
I’m developing a day by day plan to optimize the long remaining “shopping list” of tasks at hand. With so much work and not a large enough ship to have enough helpers, the crew lounge has remained empty the whole week that I’ve been here so far. Because this campaign has been packed so full, there are only two deck hand; there should be four. I’d rather have brought an assistant or two from Byrd Polar Research Center to help me. I’ve not been sleeping much more than 5 hours per night. I’m struggling to meet expectations and the my ambitious plan.
Jason Box
Polar bear tracks in fresh snow are visible from the ship all along the sea ice edge here at the Robeson channel ice arch here at the northern limit of Greenland and Canada. We’ve spotted numerous seal here, having quick escape access at the ice edge. The ice arch has been all the past winter 450 km north of it’s usual position in Smith Sound. Then, there is a bear nosing the air. A surprising number of cameras with long lenses emerge as the crew of the ship rush to one side snapping photos.
We flew around in the ship’s helicopter to get video of Arne Sorenson our Danish “Ice Pilot” and I discussing the abnormality of the open water between Greenland and Canada. The sound bites went something like:
“The Arctic Sunrise has made it to 82 and a half degrees latitude, a furthest north for Greenpeace. We made it here two days ahead of schedule because there was no sea ice whatsoever slowing us down in Nares St. There has been open water between Greenland and Canada since winter 2008, that is, at least 15 months (the sea ice did not consolidate winter 2008/2008). I’ve analyzed the past 32 years of passive microwave sea ice concentration data and found the past year to be of unprecedented in duration of low sea ice concentration. This has us asking: is this a climate change signal or just an anomalous year?
I’m on the first leg of an Arctic Climate Impacts Tour circumnavigating Greenland to investigate: glacier stability; ocean heating; and the effect of carbonaceous soot pollution on how much additional solar energy the ice caps may be absorbing.”
With an ice auger, I hand drilled through the sea ice at the midst of a large (600 m wide) floe… thickness: 1.5 m (4.9 ft). This can only be first year ice. The pressure ridges were smallish, not much higher than 2.5 m. We expected multi year (thicker than first year) ice forming the ice arch. Presumably the thicker multi year sea ice is to be found further north than here (82.5 degrees north latitude). Arctic Ocean sea ice has been thinning as the climate has warmed.
At 7 PM, we had a group photo on the sea ice.
Jason Box
Byrd Polar Research Center
guest scientist on Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise
The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise is at 82.5 N with its nose up against an ice arch that has formed 450 km north of it’s normal position. This is the farthest north a Greenpeace ship has been. Our northward progress to the top of Nares St. could not have been easier with the waters almost completely ice free and winds calm.
I took thousands of aerial photos yesterday of Petermann glacier from a helicopter as part of an install of 4 Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) time lapse cameras. The distance across Petermann fjord is not too great for the two pairs of EIS cameras to “see” the goings on below thanks to 1000+ meter cliffs on either side of the glacier. The surface of Petermann has a surprising number of melt ponds and streams, some more aptly put as lakes and rivers. Numerous cracks across Petermann make the prediction of a large (100 sq. km) area seem imminent. A 5th, on-ice, camera site is equipped with an “iceberg tracker” that sends its position twice daily via Iridium satellite. At the moment the “ice camera” remains stable. Eventually, its whole world should start to move, once the ice island detaches.
Jason E. Box @ 0808 UTC aka GMT
We’re heading to Petermann Glacier to install time lapse cameras before a large section of floating glacier ice breaks away. The sea ice that forms in front of the glacier and probably stabilizes it just broke away, seems 1-2 weeks earlier than normal. We should arrive on site early July, so we’re losing our race against time.
(above) Europoean Space Agency (ESA) MERIS image of Nares St (open water all winter). Notice the dark arc of open water as the sea ice detaches in one piece from the Petermann Glacier front. Click here for a location map.
We had …
stopover at camp mosquito, site of glacier runoff study
A Russell Glacier view
sling load from one depot to another on the inland ice
At Camp Disco, I remeasured bamboo stakes that indicate net surface accumulation or melting. Alun Hubbard in the background tends to a continuously measuring GPS.
melting snow dunes on Russell Glacier
Recent satellite images suggest that land-fast sea ice breakup in Nares St and in front of Petermann Glacier may happen earlier than we arrive on site to observe the predicted glacier front disintegration.
ICE FORECASTS FOR THE EASTERN AND NORTHERN ARCTIC ISSUED BY THE NORTH AMERICAN ICE SERVICE ON 17 JUNE 2009.
Above normal temperatures were observed over all of the Eastern Arctic during the first half of June. The breakup is already well under way especially along the western shore of Greenland, in northern Baffin Bay and throughout Lancaster Sound, and Nares Strait where current ice conditions are typically seen 4 to 6 weeks later. The ice bridge atop of Lincoln Sea is still holding but pieces of coastal fast ice keep on breaking off and flushing rapidly southward. With mean temperatures already remaining above zero at Alert, the bridge could collapse any time now; all that is needed is a strong wind event. In Penny Strait, polynias have grown in size and the low ice concentrations in Cumberland Sound; there, the breakup pattern is about 2 weeks ahead of normal.
This means we likely won’t arrive in time to cruise into Nares St without ice floes to negotiate. Further, getting equipment installed in time to document predicted Petermann glacier front disintegration is threatened.
I’m on my 18th Greenland climate science expedition to fulfill three major goals:
1) to maintain and proliferate a network of time lapse cameras as part of The Extreme Ice Survey;
2) to lead part of a Greenpeace scientific cruise to document predicted Petermann glacier front disintegration;
3) to join a sail boating expedition to study Greenland marine terminating glacier fronts and the associated oceanography.
I’ll be kept busy with numerous sub-projects that include:
photography of numerous glacier outlets to the inland ice sheet, documenting using aerial oblique photography the glaicer changes over time spans of years to decades;
ground measurements to determine the changing reflectivety of the Greenland ice sheet;
investigating the importance of tides in glacier front stability;
obtaining ice sounding radar imagery measurements to determine ice shelf under-side shape and thickness.
I‘m traveling cargo class in a US National Guard LC-130 “Herc” bound for Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. I prefer this mode of transport, not because I enjoy being either too hot or too cold nor that I like not having to converse with strangers owing to the defening noise. I prefer this way to Greenland over the flight through cosmopolitain Copenhagen, because I get to Greenland in a 6 h no-direct-cost flight with a 1 hour lay over at ice cream rich Goose Bay, Canada, and probably most importantly because I can bring 1000 lbs of baggage, if need be, and again at no surcharge. Not by choice, but out of necessity owing to delays in procurement, I’m personally sheparding 7 GPS and an oceanographic sensor, half of the kit delivered FedEx to my hotel last night. I ended up with 10 pieces of luggage at the 5 AM bag drag today. I felt bad that I was not more organized to have the equipment all shipped weeks ahead of time, like the other 38 peices I have for this trip. I was preparing to defend my showing up with two full carts of luggage, but no criticism. I’d have half the total number of pieces if my ambitions to get as much science done as possible had not overcommitted me. Welcome to my 18th Greenland climate science expedition!
Dr Alun Hubbard has been described as an ‘unhinged Welshman with a lifelong passion for all things icy’. He has happily whiled away some three years of his life in remote polar regions and organized and led over twenty successful expeditions without mishap in numerous hostile and high (latitude/elevation) places from 80 degrees north to 80 degrees south.
Many of these expeditions have been adventure motivated - racking up a dozen significant first ascents of previously unclimbed mountains, 60,000 miles of high latitude sailing and a number of other firsts. For these achievements he has been awarded the Tilman Polar Medal and nominated one of the Polartec Adventurers. However, as his years (and waistline) have progressed he has found himself drawn to the scientific pursuit of understanding the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets and has first and co-authored 30 scientific peer-reviewed publications in this field.
His principal expertise is the collection and integration of field-observations to drive state-of-the-art numerical models of climate and ice sheet interaction to help understand and predict the impacts of long and short-term climate and oceanic change on sea-level. Since 2007, he has legitimized this academic interest through a Lectureship in Glaciology at Aberystwyth University, Wales, and is principal investigator on two recently awarded UK-NERC funded initiatives to identify the factors which control the potential non-linear draw-down of the Greenland inland ice reservoir.
I depart mid-June for what has shaped up to be a major expedition; actually two expeditions.
The first expedition involves meeting a ship*. I meet the ship in Sisimiut, west Greenland. We make way with little to no stops to far northwest Greenland, ice conditions permitting. We have contingencies that in the event the sea ice in Nares St. is not navigable, we’ll work glaciers along northeast Baffin Bay. Work involves setting up temporary time lapse cameras to capture predicted continued disintegration of the Petermann Glacier ice tongue. A piece larger than Manhattan Is. seems very likely to break off. We plan to place GPS on a number of glaciers and track their speed changes with high time resolution (seconds to minutes). Tidal forces, daily melt cycles, and glacier structural changes cause speed changes. When a large ice island breaks away, the upstream effect is analagous to a champagne cork being freed…the glacier speeds up, but it’s no party!
* Specifications
Name: Arctic Sunrise
Number of berths: 28
Inflatable boats: 2 Ribs and 2 inflatabes
Helicopter capable: Yes
Gross tonnage: 949 tonnes
Length O.A: 49.62 m
Breadth: 11.50 m
Maximum Draught: 5.30 m
Maximum Speed: 13 Knots
The second expedition begins when Arctic Sunrise drops me and Alun Hubbard off in Uummannaq to meet with Hubbard’s sail boat Gambo. We’ll use gambo as an oceanographic research vessel and the means to get into position to hike in to time lapse camera sites. We might even do some first-ascent climbing.