Even in idyllic Greenland some days start to feel like the movie “Groundhog Day”, however the turn of events today broke that thread. Over our two weeks in Kangerlussuaq we have ended our evenings with a science and weather report, and the hope of flying the program over both coasts. Each morning we wake up, [...]
I had been warned of Geikie. “If they fly to Geikie get on that flight” I had been told, but nothing more.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.
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.
The 2011 field season has been a very very successful year, in fact the most successful one we have ever had. The weather has been great, the equipment proved to be mostly reliable, the people have been great and the samples are plenty.
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 [...]
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 [...]
The freshwater content of the Arctic Ocean is increasing as the Earth’s climate warms. Chemical analysis indicates that the source is both melting ice and the Pacific Ocean.
State of the Planet is a forum for discussion on varying viewpoints. The opinions expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Earth Institute or Columbia University.
