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Expedition Reader
Climate Expedition Greenland
15 – 20 September 2010
Welcome!
With this brochure we would like to welcome you to the Greenland Climate Expedition in September
of this year. We are in the middle of program and logistics preparations, and we feel it is important
to keep informing you about what to expect before and during this unique endeavor that we will be
undertaking together. We have a lot to share at this point, hence this extensive brochure.
Warmest year ever
This year is an especially interesting year to visit the Greenland icecap. June and July were
exceptionally warm months on the Greenland west coast, with temperatures rising to well above 20
degrees. It is generally expected that 2010 will become the warmest year ever recorded in Western
Greenland. Being present at the end of the arctic summer we should be able to experience firsthand
what the impact of this warm year has been to the icecap. We will visit the local airport
meteorologists to hear their observations, and also our local guides will be able to tell us about the
changes.
Expected weather conditions
Despite the warmest year ever, we do not expect temperatures in September to be very balmy.
Average daytime maximum temperatures halfway September in the expedition area are between 0
and 5 degrees, with average minimum nighttime temperatures to drop to -5 to 0 degrees. However,
as we will be at some altitude and on or near the icecap, these temperatures may need to be
corrected down by a few degrees. As we cannot predict the exact conditions, we prepare for much
lower temperatures, possibly down to -15˚C during the night.
As we are on the edge of the Arctic summer and winter, we may encounter the mountains with or
(more likely) without snow. The area in Greenland that we visit generally has calm weather
conditions, with frequent sun, moderate wind and little snow. But obviously some days are very
different. So we will prepare ourselves through an important expedition motto: Hope for the best,
prepare for the worst! And safety always has highest priority. If conditions require, we will have to
be flexible to adjust our plans at any time. But no matter what, it will be a unique experience!
Remco Timmermans
Edser Kuiper
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Reinier van den Berg
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Contents
WELCOME! ....................................................................................................................................1
CONTENTS .....................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 1 – EXPEDITION ORGANIZATION ........................................................................5
Participants...................................................................................................................................................... 5
Program ........................................................................................................................................................... 6
Equipment ....................................................................................................................................................... 8
Filming, photography, broadcast: use of our time ......................................................................................... 10
About Expedition Factory .............................................................................................................................. 11
Carbon Neutral Expeditions ........................................................................................................................... 12
CHAPTER 2 - KANGERLUSSUAQ TOWN GUIDE ................................................................ 13
Introduction to Kangerlussuaq....................................................................................................................... 13
History ........................................................................................................................................................... 15
Emergencies and medical aid ......................................................................................................................... 16
Food .............................................................................................................................................................. 17
Water ............................................................................................................................................................ 18
Sondrestrom Research Facility / SRF .............................................................................................................. 19
CHAPTER 3 – EXPEDITION ENVIRONMENT ...................................................................... 21
Sun, moon and stars at Kangerlussuaq .......................................................................................................... 21
Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) .................................................................................................................. 23
Kangerlussuaq weather statistics................................................................................................................... 24
CHAPTER 4 – THE GREENLAND ICE SHEET ....................................................................... 29
General Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 29
The melting ice sheet ..................................................................................................................................... 30
Recent ice loss events .................................................................................................................................... 31
Rate of change ............................................................................................................................................... 32
Greenland and Climate Science...................................................................................................................... 45
CHAPTER 5 – GREENLAND FLORA AND FAUNA ............................................................... 35
Polar bear ...................................................................................................................................................... 35
Musk ox ......................................................................................................................................................... 36
Greenlandic reindeer ..................................................................................................................................... 37
Arctic fox ....................................................................................................................................................... 38
Birdlife of Greenland ..................................................................................................................................... 38
Flora of Greenland ......................................................................................................................................... 39
CHAPTER 7 – ARTICLES FOR DISCUSSION ......................................................................... 41
Temperatures in Greenland rising twice as fast as global average ................................................................. 41
Climate Change in Greenland: Impacts and Response.................................................................................... 42
Changes in the Velocity Structure of the Greenland Ice Sheet ....................................................................... 48
Higher surface mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet revealed by high-resolution climate modeling ....... 52
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Chapter 1 – Expedition Organization
Participants
We now have 11 people on the participants list, including the organizing guides. On the ice we will
be accompanied by a local guide, bringing the total to 12 people in Greenland. In this section we
would like to introduce ourselves, and list the other participants for you.
Organizers
Remco Timmermans
Remco is 39 years old, father of two and one of the two owners of Expedition Factory. Remco has
been organizing arctic expeditions and winter hikes since 1992, gradually pushing his own limits.
Together with Edser, he started as a professional expedition organizer in 2008, when Expedition
Factory was founded. Since, we have successfully taken very diverse groups of people to Norway,
Finland and Greenland, mostly in the heart of the Arctic winter. Aside from his work as expedition
leader Remco works as an interim manager specializing in the field of business process management,
lean six sigma, outsourcing and MBTI-based team effectiveness training.
Edser Kuiper
Edser is the other ‘half’ of the Expedition Factory board. Edser is 39 years old, father of two. Edser
has undertaken many winterhikes and short expeditions, initially as hobby, later professionally. He is
a trained and certified Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) team trainer, and has followed several
expedition skill trainings. Besides his work for Expedition Factory Edser is an interim marketeer and
economist, doing strategic and marketing assignments in the financial services industry.
Reinier van den Berg
Reinier is a well known Dutch meteorologist and TV weather presenter, working for Meteoconsult, a
Dutch weather services provider. He is the initiator of this Greenland Climate Expedition. In
November of 2009 Reinier hosted a Dutch Climate Conference where he watched a short movie
about climate change in Greenland, presented by Expedition Factory. At that point cooperation
started with our current expedition as a result.
Participants
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Helga van Leur: Meteorologist and TV weather presenter for Dutch RTL Television
Frank van der Laan: Chief Editor at Weer Magazine (Dutch Weather Magazine)
Jocelyne Blouin: Meteorologist and TV weather presenter at TV Radio Canada
Pierre Deshaies: TV Producer at TV Radio Canada
Jacques Racine: Cameraman at TV Radio Canada
Coen Blees: Director of sustainable cleaning material wholesale company Groveko
Jan Oortgiesen: Water quality and environmental engineer and advisor at BMD Advies
Alfred Uytdewilligen: Director of CAD software and services company CAD2M
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Program
The program remains largely unchanged, but we are now filling in all the details. Flights have now
been booked and flight times are known:
Wednesday 15 September
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Travel to Copenhagen at your own convenience.
18:00 – We meet for introductions and dinner at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen
20:00 – Evening presentation about the climate situation in West Greenland by Reinier van den
Berg and Dr. Gudfinna Adalgeirsdottir of the Danish Meteorological Institute.
We have reserved rooms at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Please let us know if you would like to use
this room. Rate is DKK 1465 per room, including breakfast. The Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Hotel
is one of the first climate neutral hotels in the world.
22:00 – Distribution of your personal ‘expedition kit’, a backpack with all the equipment you will
need for the expedition
Thursday 16 September
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06:30 – Breakfast at the hotel
07:00 – Transfer by shuttle to the nearby airport (15 minutes)
09:10 – Departure of flight Air Greenland GL781 (watches go 4 hours back)
09:40 – Arrival at Kangerlussuaq Airport
10:00 – Meeting and briefing of the current situation by our local guide
11:00 – Meeting with Kangerlussuaq Airport meteorologists
12:00 – Lunch at the Airport Hotel
12:30 – Departure to the inland ice, transfer by 4x4 or small bus (35 km)
14:30 – Arrival at Point 660, start of the expedition on the icecap
17:30 – Building base camp, dinner and night on the ice
Friday 17 September
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Entire day on the ice, from the base camp, lead by our local guide
Night at same location on the ice
Saturday 18 September
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In the morning we break up our camp and head for Russell’s Glacier, on the landside
Today is a relative long hike on ice and land, arriving at our new camp spot in the afternoon
Night underneath the glacier rim at Russell’s Glacier
Sunday 19 September
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Excursion in the Russell’s Glacier area.
Around lunch time we break up camp and hike back to the main road, along large glacial river
beds and quick sand
Around 16:00 we are picked up from the main road and transfer back to Kangerlussuaq
17:00 – Arrival at Airport Hotel Kangerlussuaq
18:00 – Greenlandic specialties dinner at the Hotel Restaurant
20:00 – Drinks at the bar
Night at the Airport Hotel
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Monday 20 September
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Breakfast at the hotel
Optional excursion on foot to the town of Kangerlussuaq, at the other side of the airport
11:00 – Check in for flight to Copenhagen
12:50 – Departure of flight Air Greenland GL782 (watches go 4 hours forward)
21:10 – Arrival in Copenhagen
End of the expedition (some of us will transfer to Quality Airport Hotel Dan)
Russell’s Glacier
Contact details
Please contact us for all information:
Remco Timmermans
Edser Kuiper
Cell: +31 629 309 349
Cell: +31 610 002 892
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Equipment
Below is the equipment list for the Greenland Expedition. Please note that there are three
categories. The first category (items that you have to bring yourself) is the most important for you.
All other material will be arranged by us and distributed in Copenhagen and/or Greenland.
Please note that below tables are only for the actual expedition. On top of this list you will bring
normal clothing and travel items to wear and carry on planes and in the hotels. During the
expedition we will leave this non-expedition luggage at the hotel in Kangerlussuaq, or even in
Copenhagen. There are good luggage storage facilities at both places.
1 - Items that you will have to bring yourself
Passport
Thin (fleece) jacket
Wallet/cash/credit cards
Scarf
Sunglasses/ski goggles
Thin (thermal) gloves
High walking shoes/boots
Tooth brush and paste
Long thermal underwear
Personal toiletries
Walking socks
Plastic plate
Spare shoe laces
Plastic cup
Cell phone
Camera plus batteries
Plastic spoon/fork/knife
Snacks for lunches (3 days)
Sunscreen
Lipcream
Toiletpaper
Paper tissues
2 – Items that will be arranged by Expedition Factory – for individual use
Down winter sleeping bag
Fleece thermal jacket
Crampons (if necessary)
Sleeping bag liner
Beany hat
Walking/ski poles
Inflatable sleeping mattress
Balaclava hat
Harness
Backpack (65 liter)
Gore Tex Expedition Mitts
Emergency blanket
Flightbag/backpack raincover
Down jacket
Waterbottle
Gore Tex Expedition jacket
Headlight and batteries
Gore Tex Expedition pants
Gaiters
3 – Items that will be arranged by Expedition Factory – for group use
Expedition tents
Cooking pots and accessories
Solar panels plus battery
Stoves
Meals (breakfast)
Repair material (ducttape)
Fuel for stoves
Meals (dinner)
Maps
Expedition sleds
Coffee/tea/sugar
Pulka-style sleds (2)
First aid kits
Satellite phone
Navigation equipment
EPIRB emergency beacon
Garbage bags
Safety ropes
Weight
Bringing a full camp, personal gear, fuel and food for 4 days for 11 people is heavy. So not counting
your personal luggage, you will receive a 12 to 15 kilogram expedition ‘kit’ from us. Depending on
the amount of personal items (e.g. cameras, equipment, clothing, toiletries and snacks), you will be
carrying 15 to 22 kilogram in your backpack. And although we will try to distribute the gear
according to personal strength, we advise you to keep any item that you bring to the absolute
minimum.
And to avoid excess weight charges on the plane, please keep your heavy items (cameras, batteries)
in your hand luggage, and wear your (heavy) mountain boots.
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No cotton-rule
During winter expeditions it is critically important to stay warm. Staying warm is often equivalent to
staying dry. Expedition clothes are therefore designed to keep you warm, but also to keep you dry.
So outerwear is designed to keep water (from rain and snow) out, while underwear is designed to
transport water from your body out. This system works best with materials that do not absorb
water. Important rule for cold conditions: no cotton or linen based (under) wear.
Layer system
In order to use your clothes to regulate your body temperature, it is best to wear your clothes in
multiple thin layers. Minimum number of layer is three: thin, long sports underwear to push water
away from your body, then a thermal layer for warmth, followed by a waterproof, but breathable
outer shell. When it gets colder, you simply add layers. When it gets warmer (e.g. when walking in
the sun), you take layers off. We provide you with the middle and outer layers. You bring your own
first layer.
Shoes
If you do not already have high walking boots, we recommend you purchase a pair as soon as
possible. Good waterproof or Gore-Tex leather walking boots with good grip should do the job.
There is no need to purchase special winter boots, although that is OK too.
Underwear
Understandably we expect participants to bring their own underwear and socks. However, it is
important to realize that Greenland winter conditions require different underwear than you may be
used to. We recommend you to bring a few sets of long-sleeved thermal underwear (pants and
shirts). These cannot be made of cotton, but rather of special (winter) sports synthetic material. Ask
your local outdoor shop for the best material. Underwear sold for skiing or iceskating should work
fine.
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Filming, photography, broadcast: use of our time
As you can see in the list of participants, there is a film crew from TV Canada in our group, as well as
a weather magazine editor. Also the rest of the group has a special interest in weather, climate,
nature and environment in the expedition area. Because of this special nature of our group we will
ensure that there is plenty of time for filming, photography and live broadcast. The daily hiking
distances will be kept short. They will also be planned in time, so we have joint breaks at the best
spots, and avoid unnecessary waiting for individual participants.
We realize this expedition is relatively short, so we’ll help you get the maximum benefit from the
limited time we spend together. You can help us in this regard, by committing yourself to the group
agreements and having a flexible attitude.
Contingency planning
As experienced expedition organizers we have learned that a plan can never be more than a rough
indication of plans. The extent to which we will be able to execute the expedition exactly as planned
above fully depends on the kindness of Mother Nature. Flights may be cancelled or delayed, roads
may be closed, glaciers may be too dangerous to cross, there may be snow storms, heavy rain or
other unexpected situations.
Because of this, Expedition Factory will assume no responsibility for planned items to be cancelled or
changed. Obviously we will do everything we can to make this expedition a success. And whatever
the weather conditions may be, we will witness a very special part of our world, including all its
characteristics, good and bad. With our equipment we are able to withstand rain, wind, snow and
very cold temperatures. Nevertheless we will follow all advises from local authorities, our local
expert guide and our gut feeling.
Our expedition motto: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Safety first!
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About Expedition Factory
The concept of Expedition Factory evolved during a force 11 winter storm on the summit of
Braeriach Mountain in the Scottish Cairngorms. A group of winterhikers, led by Remco Timmermans
and Edser Kuiper, were caught by surprise by mother nature and got stuck on the top of the plateau.
They safely made it back to the glen, only relying on their experience, gear and some remote help.
This experience did something to the team. What started as a group of remote friends-of-friends,
instantly became a very close team, knowing exactly each others’ strengths and weaknesses, bonded
by an experience. The concept was born.
Four years later, Expedition Factory organizes tailor-made expeditions for climate awareness, social
and personal leadership development and team building. Our concept combines thorough team
analysis with intense arctic expeditions. By experiencing a compact expedition participants gain a
positive and lasting effect. This will equip them with the tools to cooperatively generate the best and
most climate friendly results. Our customers include companies and organizations that are prepared
to invest in its management teams and talented employees.
Our portfolio of destinations include some of the most unique locations in arctic regions around the
world, like Greenland, Iceland, Northern Scandinavia and Scotland.
Expedition Factory was founded by two friends in 2008, turning their passion into work. After a 15
year career in the international corporate world they combine interim management projects with
their work as expedition leaders and trainers for Expedition Factory.
Vision
Expedition Factory helps people become aware of differences between individual people and their
position in society and nature.
Mission
Expedition Factory brings people together in new, unknown, beautiful, but sometimes difficult
conditions. It lets people cooperate under these conditions, with the goal to learn about each others
strenghts and achieve results that can only be achieved as a team.
Practice
What we mean by all of this all can best be summarized as follows:
 Provide insight in team dynamics and personalities within a team
 Confrontation with something that is larger than one self
 Bring to life values such as integrity, respect, awareness
 Confrontation with climate change and our place on earth
 Have fun together and jointly undergo a unique experience
 Live the values of corporate social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility
As a new company we want to set a good example of a socially responsible undertaking right from
the start. CSR is an important element of our company.
As experienced international corporate managers we are very aware of our position in world society.
As a company we apply this awareness to our programs and participants. This is the very core of our
corporate mission.
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In daily operations at Expedition Factory this translates into being environmentally aware and
careful use of energy and resources. We communicate electronically as much as possible and have
an internal no-print policy. During our expeditions we apply strict environmental norms. As an
example we compensate the full CO2 footprint of all our expeditions.
Carbon Neutral Expeditions
There are several methods we apply to make this expedition as much climate-friendly and carbonneutral as possible. In a nutshell:
We compensate our CO2 footprint by planting new trees in developing countries. We do not do this
ourselves, but through our partner Trees for Travel (www.treesfortravel.info). Through this initiative
we compensate the CO2 from flights, but also the car-transport from the airport to the icecap and
back, and our own car CO2 emissions during the preparation of this expedition and the trip to
Copenhagen.
During the expedition we will experiment with biofuel cooking stoves. These stoves burn organic
material in the shape of our own waste (paper, cardboard, wood) and special wood pellets that we
will bring. For the sake of safety and durability we will also bring a few gas stoves to use as backup.
During the expedition we will do everything we can to make our presence as invisible as possible.
We will not take anything from nature, we will take all our waste back to town ourselves, we will use
local resources as much as possible (fuel, food).
We check our equipment suppliers for their corporate social responsibility and environmental
policies. If there is anything we do not like, we will not purchase from them. This counts for clothing,
sleeping gear, tents and other equipment, but also for expedition food.
The combination of these factors makes this expedition carbon-neutral. On the other hand, we are
very aware that simply going to a vulnerable area like Greenland puts great stress upon the land and
nature. However, we do not believe that simply stopping visiting places is a solution to the
environmental issues that the world is facing today. There are limits though, for example, our
expedition company will refrain from visiting even more sensitive and more difficult-to-reach places
than where we are going on this trip. It is simply unnecessary to take helicopters or snowmobiles
further inland.
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Chapter 2 - Kangerlussuaq Town Guide
Introduction to Kangerlussuaq
Kangerlussuaq holds several identities:
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A settlement in the Sisimiut municipality
An airport with trans-Atlantic capabilities
The only major traffic hub in Greenland
The gateway to Greenland’s Ice Sheet
Kangerlussuaq has around 530 inhabitants and is a dynamic and thriving society dominated by a
young and well educated population. Airport and tourist services are the major livelihoods in
Kangerlussuaq. Kangerlussuaq has a long tradition of being a research gateway to mid West
Greenland and the Ice Sheet.
Kangerlussuaq’s well developed infrastructure, the researchers hotel KISS, the presence of CH2M Hill
Polar Services (CPS) to service the many U.S. NSF funded research projects and the frequent visits
and transportation services rendered by U.S. 109th Airlift Wing, New York Air National Guard, and its
unique ski-equipped LC-130 aircraft all contribute to maintain and strengthen the position of
Kangerlussuaq as the logistics hub for research in Greenland.
Area Map
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Map of Kangerlussuaq Town
Coordinates
The geographic latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates for Kangerlussuaq airport (at the apron in
front of the air terminal) are: 67°01 05 North / 050°41 39 West - and the elevation is 50.3 m (165
feet). The above position expressed in decimal degrees: 67.0181° / -50.6942° .
Areas off limit
Generally, you are free to venture anywhere in the Kangerlussuaq region. However, you are
expected to show respect for the privacy of others in and close to houses and cabins. No ground is
privately owned in Greenland, but owners of houses/cabins are given an area allotment
(arealtildeling ) of the construction or building and its immediate surroundings. Except for
downtown Kangerlussuaq, you can camp anywhere, as long as you observe and respect the
legitimate interest and right of other people.
Just west of the mountain Keglen (aka Sugar Loaf ), approx 7 km east of town and in proximity to 3
small lakes south of the gravel road, an area is demarcated by brightly coloured stakes and signs.
This area holds unexploded ammunition from the US period and is strictly off limit to any
unauthorized person !
An area which is definitely recommended to be off-limit for non-hunters during the period January
15 April 1 is the muskox winter hunting area located to the east and south very close to
Kangerlussuaq. Here local hunters exercise their muskox hunting rights using snowmobiles and/or
dog sleds for transportation.
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History
Kangerlussuaq (formerly known as Søndre Strømfjord , Sondrestrom Air Base and Bluie West 8 ) was
founded on October 7 1941, under the supervision of Colonel B. Balchen of the United States Air
Force.
Earlier that year, on April 9 1941, Greenland's security was entrusted to the USA by the Danish
Ambassador, Henrik Kauffmann, in Washington, as Denmark itself was unable to ensure Greenland's
security and supplies to the country under the German occupation of Denmark. The USA set up a
number of military bases and weather stations in Greenland during World War II, including the
military base Bluie West 8 in Kangerlussuaq. During the war, Bluie West 8 soon became one of the
most important stop-over sites for flying missions between the USA and its allies in Europe, owing to
the fine flying conditions for which Kangerlussuaq became known.
After the war, in 1950, Bluie West 8 was handed back to Denmark, and on April 27 1951 the base
reverted to the USA when Denmark and the USA signed a new defence agreement, whereby the
Americans opened Bluie West 8 up under the name of Sondrestrom Air Base.
In the period between November 15 1954 and October 1 1965, Scandinavian Airline System (SAS)
began making use of Søndre Strømfjord for stop-overs on the North Pole route between
Copenhagen and Los Angeles. The non-stop route linking Copenhagen and Søndre Strømfjord had
thus been created and, besides being an American military base, the airport became the gateway to
Greenland. In 1960, the civil aspect of the base was established with a transit hotel as annex.
During the post-war period, which saw the onset of the cold war between the two world powers, the
USA and the USSR, DEW (Distant Early Warning) radar stations were set up by the Americans from
1958 until far into the 1970s: the DYE-2 and DYE-3 stations on Greenland s Ice Sheet, DYE-1 at
Qaqqatoqqaq mountain east of Sisimiut and DYE-4 near present Kulusuk airport on the east coast.
Sondrestrom Air Base's main mission since that time has been to supply the DEW stations.
When the disarmament between the USA and the USSR started in 1989, the Pentagon decided to
close down the DEW stations for the period 1990-91, soon followed by the decision to shut down
the American base. On September 30 1992, USAF left Søndre Strømfjord and on October 1 1992, the
entire airport came under Greenland Home Rule and was given its first Greenlandic name,
Kangerlussuaq, as its official title.
Kangerlussuaq Airport is operated by the Airport Authority under Greenland's Home Rule
(Mittarfeqarfiit, acrnymed GLV for Grønlands Lufthavnsvæsen ). Until WW II, the Kangerlussuaq area
had been populated only in summers by Inuit hunters and their families in summer hunting and
fishing camps. Today, with a population of approx. 530, Kangerlussuaq Airport is civil area under
Sisimiut municipality.
Bank & money
Greenland uses Danish 'kroner' (DKK) as the only official currency. There is no bank in
Kangerlussuaq. You should therefore arrange for sufficient cash for your own activities prior to your
arrival or plan to use a Danish bank cheques, or credit cards as payment. At the airport hotel counter
you can buy DKK using major international credit cards or Traveller's Cheques but only up to DKK 500
/ day.
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The general store, Pilersuisoq, will accept payment in cash, Dankort or by credit card. When paying
with Dankort or credit cards you are required to use your card-specific PIN code at the cashier's
terminal in the store.
For PIN-coded transactions the maximum amount to be drawn per card per day is:
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Eurocard / MasterCard / JCB / Visa: DKK 1,400
AmericanExpress: DKK 1,500
Dankort: DKK 2,000
Diner's Club: DKK 2,000
Personal cheques (Danish bank cheques only): DKK 2,000
Cell phones (GSM)
NMT cell phones can not be used in Greenland. GSM-based cell phones can be used almost all over
inhabited regions in Greenland, i.e. in all 17 towns and all hamlets with more than 70 inhabitants.
GSM transceivers deployed on mountain peaks will also secure an improved coverage for GSM
telephones used while in coastal waters.
A GSM coverage map for GSM in the Kangerlussuaq area shows that cell phones only have coverage
within approximately a 7 mile/10 kilometer radius from the airport:
GPRS (an add-on service to GSM telephones)
telephones may encounter coverage problems in
some towns and hamlets where telephone
communication is based on satellite links. You can
use a foreign GSM subscription telephone in
Greenland, if your telecom operator has a roaming
agreement with TELE Greenland. See the list of
roaming partners in Greenland at
http://www.tele.gl/dk/Mobil/Mobil_i_udlandet/R
oaming_lande.htm
The TELE Greenland section of the post office
(adjacent to Pilersuisoq, the general store) sells
various cell phones and anything else associated
with telecommunication in Greenland.
Emergencies and medical aid
Kangerlussuaq does not have a resident medical doctor. Every 4-6 months a doctor from the
Greenland health system will visit and you may consult the doctor with your medical problems which
could not be solved by the Kangerlussuaq nurse.
The nurse's clinic is situated in the airport hotel complex. Opening hours are Monday - Friday 10:00
12:00. Call 8:30-9:00 for an appointment. The nurse can handle most of the more ordinary cases.
Medicine may also be obtained from the nurse, after consultation with a medical doctor. In acute
cases requiring immediate action by a doctor the patient will be evacuated to the nearest hospital.
Please note, that medical service including medicine is free in Greenland. After 16:00 and in the
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weekends you will have to contact Sisimiut Sundhedscenter (Sisimiut Health Care Centre) at phone
+299 86 42 11.
For your own convenience, please remember to bring your health insurance ID card to Greenland In
case of emergency, call phone number +299 84 12 11.
Medicines
The regulations that apply to the import of medicines between the Schengen countries also apply to
Greenland, due to the aforementioned special agreement. Ordinary medicines such as headache
pills, arthritis medication, cough mixture etc. for personal consumption can be freely brought into
Greenland by travellers. Medicines containing euphoriants may only be brought in by travellers if a
certificate is obtained in advance from the pharmacy that handles the prescription. A prescription is
required for each drug containing euphoriants, and the certificate is valid for a maximum of 30 days.
Certificates can also be obtained for drugs that have already been purchased. The certificate is free,
and you must take the original copy with you on your journey.
Dental Care
There is no resident dentist in Kangerlussuaq. Only twice a year a dentist from the Greenland health
system will visit Kangerlussuaq for consultations. Nothing more than an ordinary check and an
ordinary cavity filling can be performed at Kangerlussuaq. All other dental work will have to take
place at a dentist's clinic somewhere else.
Electricity
Kangerlussuaq has 208 Volt AC, 50Hz as well as 110 Volt AC, 60 Hz current. Therefore, you will
encounter two different outlet types: the continental European outlet as well as the U.S outlet.
Please plan your adaptor needs accordingly, - and bring your own adaptor(s).
Emergencies
When a distress or emergency call from a field party anywhere in Greenland is received by the SAR
(Search And Rescue) authority in Nuuk (i.e. Chief Constable for Greenland) a coordinated SAR or
evacuation operation will be implemented by the SAR authority, involving fixed-wing aircrafts,
helicopters, vessels and rescue crews. In case of a local emergency involving personal injury or acute
illness, please call phone number +299 84 12 11 and report location and situation.
Food
Pilersuisoq (the general store): Located just north of the airport building and adjacent to the post
office. Opening hours are Monday - Friday 9:00 18:00 and Saturday - Sunday 9:00 14:00. You can buy
fresh, canned, frozen, dried and freeze-dried foods for household use as well as for field use. In case
you need large quantities of special items you must contact the store manager well in advance to
learn the terms of payment and delivery.
Airport Hotel Cafeteria: The cafeteria located in the airport hotel building offers good, plain meals at
reasonable prices. The cafeteria is open every day 6:30 - 21:30 (hot meals available 10:30 - 20:30).
Take-home orders can also be arranged (phone 11104). Only Danish currency, Dankort, or Danish
bank cheques are accepted as payment.
Airport Hotel Restaurant: The airport building has a good restaurant with an international menu and
Greenland specialties. The restaurant is open every day 18:00 - 24:00 (kitchen closes 21:30).
17
Take Away Pizzeria: Located next to the parking lot in front of the post office this shop produces
pizzas to go. Open Monday - Friday 11:00 - 20:00 and Saturday 12:00 - 20:00. Please call 84 16 35 to
place your order.
Water
Kangerlussuaq gets its utility water from the lake Tasersuatsiaq (aka Lake Ferguson). This water
resource delivers drinking water of very high quality. Except for silted water in glacier fed rivers,
brooks and lakes the numerous lakes and small streams all hold very good drinking water. However,
a few lakes north of the harbour area (e.g. Hundesø and Linneasø ) and south of the TACAN summit
on Black Ridge (e.g. Lille Saltsø and Store Saltsø ) hold salty water (i.e. water with very high contents
of special ions) and you are strongly recommended NOT to drink this water or use it for cooking.
Unless you plan to work or camp next to these lakes, in the middle of the extended sandy areas of
Sandflugtsdalen or Ørkendalen or along the Ice Sheet edge (e.g. in the dry stretches of Israndsdalen )
you will not need to bring along clean, drinkable water.
All fresh water in Greenland is absolutely free of Giardia that can give you severe intestinal problems
in other areas of the Arctic
Fjord ice
The surface water in Kangerlussuaq fjord is frozen between October-November and June. However,
the ice is thick and safe enough for general traffic by sleds and vehicles ONLY in January March. Even
in that period, caution should be taken when crossing the tidal zone with cracked ice, sometimes
hidden in snow. Tidal cracks occur in fast ice when the tidal action moves the sea ice above and
below the level at which it is shorebound. Remember: Hazardous conditions may exist on the sea ice
at any time of the season !!
Lake ice
The lakes around Kangerlussuaq are highly diverse in physical and chemical aspects and these
differences result in various freezing and thawing patterns during the fall, winter and spring seasons.
Generally speaking, lakes in the region will be ice-covered from late September until some time in
June, with significant temporal variance; salt lakes and lakes with a large water volume being the
slowest to freeze.
Here are some guidelines for determining the safety of lake ice. The following table of safe loads is
valid ONLY for ice that is clear and sound, with no flowing water underneath. It is not reliable for
stationary loads. When in doubt, stay off the ice!
Required minimum ice thickness in cm
10
15
25
Description of safe moving load
One person on foot, skates or skies
One snowmobile
A single car
18
Sondrestrom Research Facility / SRF
Located about 2 km north of Kangerlussuaq harbour, this facility is dedicated to studying the polar
upper atmosphere. For historical reasons, this research station is known around the world as the
Sondrestrom Upper Atmospheric Research Facility in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Locally, the facility
is known as Kellyville after the last name of the first P.I., John Kelley. The facility is operated by SRI
International in Menlo Park, California, under the auspices of the U.S. National Science Foundation
and in joint cooperation with Denmark's Meteorological Institute. SRF has been operating in
Greenland since 1983 and continues to be in high demand by the scientific communities.
SRF is host to more than 20 instruments, the
majority of which provide unique and
complementary information about the arctic
upper atmosphere. Together these instruments
advance our knowledge of upper atmospheric
physics and determine how the tenuous neutral
gas interacts with the charged space plasma
environment. The suite of instrumentation
supports many disciplines of research; from
plate tectonics to auroral physics and space
weather. The facility instrumentation covers
the electromagnetic spectrum while the data
results span the spectrum of polar research.
The centerpiece instrument of the facility is an L-band incoherent scatter (IS) radar with a 32 m fully
steerable antenna. The IS radar technique is a powerful tool capable of measuring range-resolved
ionospheric and atmospheric parameters simultaneously from the ground to the outer reaches of
our atmosphere. Use of a steerable antenna allows spatial coverage in both latitude and longitude.
19
20
Chapter 3 – Expedition Environment
Sun, moon and stars at Kangerlussuaq
Sunrise, sunset and twilight hours
Date
16/9
17/9
18/9
19/9
20/9
Astro
03:02
03:13
03:21
03:28
03:34
Sunrise
Naut
04:39
04:47
04:51
04:55
04:59
Civil
05:50
05:57
06:00
06:04
06:07
Rise
06:45
06:51
06:55
06:58
07:01
Set
19:47
19:45
19:41
19:37
19:33
Sunset
Civil
20:41
20:40
20:35
20:31
20:27
Naut
21:51
21:49
21:44
21:39
21:34
Astro
23:24
23:19
23:11
23:04
22:57
Twilight explained
Twilight is defined according to the solar elevation angle, which is the position of the geometric
center of the sun relative to the horizon. There are three established and widely accepted
subcategories of twilight: civil twilight (brightest), nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight
(darkest).
Civil twilight
Morning civil twilight begins when the geometric center of the sun is 6° below the horizon (the point
of civil dawn), and ends at sunrise. Evening civil twilight begins at sunset and ends when the center
of the sun reaches 6° below the horizon (the point of civil dusk). In general, civil twilight is the point
where artificial illumination is required to read outside.
Nautical twilight
Nautical twilight is the time when the center of the sun is between 6° and 12° below the horizon. In
general, nautical twilight ends when navigation via the horizon at sea is no longer possible.
Astronomical twilight
Astronomical twilight is the time when the center of the Sun is between 12° and 18° below the
horizon. In general, the end of astronomical twilight is the point where the sky is no longer
illuminated by the sun and is dark enough for all astronomical observations.
21
Moonrise, moonset and moonphase
Date
16/9
17/9
18/9
19/9
20/9
Moonrise
19:51
19:17
19:02
18:52
18:43
Moonset
21:35
23:49
None
01:37
03:15
Moonphase
8/15
9/15
10/15
11/15
12/15
Star chart
The following chart shows the constellation of the sky in the Kangerlussuaq area at 16 September,
midnight UTC (22:00 local time), watching north.
22
Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)
Kangerlussuaq has a very stable climate with warm dry summers and cold clear winter days which
are perfect for experiencing the northern lights. With around 300 days a year under cloudless skies,
Kangerlussuaq is one of the best places in the world from which to see the northern lights.
The dancing northern lights in the night sky are a sight for the gods which winter holidaymakers in
Greenland will in all likelihood come to experience. From the early autumn the night sky is regularly
illuminated by the northern lights’ green glow. It is a natural phenomenon that always causes
excitement and wonder among those who have never seen it before.
The Inuit people have also allowed themselves to wonder at the sight down through the ages, and
the northern lights have often challenged the imagination. A well-known legend relates that when
the northern lights dance in the night sky, it means that the dead are playing football with a walrus
skull. Today certain tribes think that children will be particularly intelligent if they are born in the
magical glow of the northern lights.
The northern lights – or Aurora Borealis as it is officially known – actually occur all year round, but
cannot be seen during the summer months in Greenland due to the midnight sun. The phenomenon
is often seen around midnight and is best experienced on a dark, clear night in the period from
September to the beginning of April. If you are travelling during this period, you can see the
northern lights from anywhere in the country, whilst in South Greenland the northern lights can be
seen from as early as the end of August.
The northern lights are a fascinating phenomenon caused by collisions between the sun’s electrically
charged particles and molecules and atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere. The spectacular light show
takes place in the upper atmosphere at a height of approximately 100 kilometres (62 miles) and can
best be compared to candles flickering in the wind or fluttering curtains in shades of green and
yellow. Greenland is one of the best places in the world to observe the northern lights.
The Aurora Borealis forms when charged protons and electrons emitted from the sun as a solar wind
are drawn in towards us by Earth’s magnetic field and collide with atoms and molecules in our
atmosphere. These collisions result in countless little bursts of light that make up the aurora.
Collisions with oxygen produce red and green auroras, while nitrogen produces pink and purple
colors. The magnetic field is more concentrated around the Poles, hence this reaction encircles the
polar regions of the earth and occurs at an altitude of 40-400 miles (65-650 km) in a zone called the
Auroral Oval.
23
Kangerlussuaq weather statistics
Temperature and precipitation averages 1961 – 1990
Temperature forecast for autumn 2010
Variations in temperature over Greenland during
the period August-October 2010.
The forecast shows that the average temperature
during the period from August to October 2010
will be approx. 1.8 ° C above normal for
Greenland.
The map shows the difference in relation to
climate normal (1961-1990).
The forecast is based on 40 individual models,
calculated by ECMWF, the European Centre for
Medium- Range Weather Forecasts. Projections
have different initial conditions and because of
the chaotic atmospheric nature they develop
differently and give different values of
temperature differences.
24
Daily maximum and minimum temperatures September 2009 and 2008
25
Daily precipitation September 2009 and 2008
26
Daily average and maximum wind speed September 2009 and 2008
27
28
Chapter 4 – The Greenland Ice Sheet
General Introduction
The Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering 1,710,000 square kilometers (660,235 sq mi),
roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the World, after the
Antarctic Ice Sheet. The ice sheet is almost 2,400 kilometers (1,500 mi) long in a north-south
direction, and its greatest width is 1,100 kilometers (680 mi) at a latitude of 77°N, near its northern
margin. The mean altitude of the ice is 2135 meters. The thickness is generally more than 2 km (1.24
mi) and over 3 km (1.86 mi) at its thickest point. It is not the only ice mass of Greenland – isolated
glaciers and small ice caps cover between 76,000 and 100,000 square kilometers (29,344 and 38,610
sq mi) around the periphery. Some scientists believe that global warming may be about to push the
ice sheet over a threshold where the entire ice sheet will melt in less than a few hundred years. If
the entire 2,850,000 cubic kilometers (683,751 cu mi) of ice were to melt, it would lead to a global
sea level rise of 7.2 m (23.6 ft). This would inundate most coastal cities in the World and remove
several small island countries from the face of Earth, since island nations such as Tuvalu and
Maldives have a maximum altitude below or just above this number.
The ice in the current ice sheet is as old as 110,000 years. However, it is generally thought that the
Greenland Ice Sheet formed in the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene by coalescence of ice caps and
glaciers. It did not develop at all until the late Pliocene, but apparently developed very rapidly with
the first continental glaciation.
The massive weight of the ice has depressed the central area
of Greenland; the bedrock surface is near sea level over most
of the interior of Greenland, but mountains occur around the
periphery, confining the sheet along its margins. If the ice
were to disappear, Greenland would most probably appear as
an archipelago, at least until isostasy would lift the land
surface above sea level once again. The ice surface reaches its
greatest altitude on two north-south elongated domes, or
ridges. The southern dome reaches almost 3,000 meters
(9,843 ft) at latitudes 63°–65°N; the northern dome reaches
about 3,290 meters (10,794 ft) at about latitude 72°N. The
crests of both domes are displaced east of the centre line of
Greenland. The unconfined ice sheet does not reach the sea
along a broad front anywhere in Greenland, so that no large
ice shelves occur. The ice margin just reaches the sea,
however, in a region of irregular topography in the area of
Melville Bay southeast of Thule. Large outlet glaciers, which
are restricted tongues of the ice sheet, move through
bordering valleys around the periphery of Greenland to calve
off into the ocean, producing the numerous icebergs that
sometimes occur in North Atlantic shipping lanes. The best
known of these outlet glaciers is Jakobshavn Isbræ (Kalaallisut:
Sermeq Kujalleq), which, at its terminus, flows at speeds of 20
to 22 metres or 65.6 to 72.2 feet per day.
29
On the ice sheet, temperatures are generally substantially lower than elsewhere in Greenland. The
lowest mean annual temperatures, about −31 °C (−23.8 °F), occur on the north-central part of the
north dome, and temperatures at the crest of the south dome are about −20 °C (−4.0 °F).
During winter, the ice sheet takes on a clear blue/green color. During summer, the top layer of ice
melts leaving pockets of air in the ice that makes it look white.
The ice sheet as a record of past climates
The ice sheet, consisting of layers of compressed snow from more than a hundred thousand years,
contains in its ice today's most valuable record of past climates. In the past decades, scientists have
drilled ice cores up to 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) deep. Scientists have, using those ice cores, obtained
information on (proxies for) temperature, ocean volume, precipitation, chemistry and gas
composition of the lower atmosphere, volcanic eruptions, solar variability, sea-surface productivity,
desert extent and forest fires. This variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural
recorder of climate, such as tree rings or sediment layers.
The melting ice sheet
Positioned in the Arctic, the Greenland ice sheet is especially vulnerable to global warming. Arctic
climate is now rapidly warming and much larger Arctic shrinkage changes are projected.[4] The
Greenland Ice Sheet has experienced record melting in recent years and is likely to contribute
substantially to sea level rise as well as to possible changes in ocean circulation in the future. The
area of the sheet that experiences melting has increased about 16% from 1979 (when
measurements started) to 2002 (most recent data). The area of melting in 2002 broke all previous
records. The number of glacial earthquakes at the Helheim Glacier and the northwest Greenland
glaciers increased substantially between 1993 and 2005. In 2006, estimated monthly changes in the
mass of Greenland's ice sheet suggest that it is melting at a rate of about 239 cubic kilometers (57 cu
mi) per year. A more recent study, based on reprocessed and improved data between 2003 and
2008, reports an average trend of 195 cubic kilometers (47 cu mi) per year. These measurements
came from the US space agency's GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite,
launched in 2002, as reported by BBC. Using data from two ground-observing satellites, ICESAT and
ASTER, a study published in Geophysical Research Letters (September 2008) shows that nearly 75
percent of the loss of Greenland's ice can be traced back to small coastal glaciers.[8]
If the entire 2,850,000 km3 (683,751 cu mi) of ice were to melt, global sea levels would rise 7.2 m
(23.6 ft). Recently, fears have grown that continued global warming will make the Greenland Ice
Sheet cross a threshold where long-term melting of the ice sheet is inevitable. Climate models
project that local warming in Greenland will exceed 3 °C (5.4 °F) during this century. Ice sheet
models project that such a warming would initiate the long-term melting of the ice sheet, leading to
a complete melting of the ice sheet (over centuries), resulting in a global sea level rise of about 7
meters (23.0 ft).[4] Such a rise would inundate almost every major coastal city in the World. How
fast the melt would eventually occur is a matter of discussion. According to IPCC, the expected 3
degrees warming at the end of the century would, if kept from rising further, result in about 1 meter
sea level rise over the next millennium.
Some scientists have cautioned that these rates of melting are overly optimistic as they assume a
linear, rather than erratic, progression. James E. Hansen has argued that multiple positive feedbacks
could lead to nonlinear ice sheet disintegration much faster than claimed by the IPCC. According to a
2007 paper, "we find no evidence of millennial lags between forcing and ice sheet response in
30
paleoclimate data. An ice sheet response time of centuries seems probable, and we cannot rule out
large changes on decadal time-scales once wide-scale surface melt is underway."
The melt zone, where summer warmth turns snow and ice into slush and melt ponds of meltwater,
has been expanding at an accelerating rate in recent years. When the meltwater seeps down
through cracks in the sheet, it accelerates the melting and, in some areas, allow the ice to slide more
easily over the bedrock below, speeding its movement to the sea. Besides contributing to global sea
level rise, the process adds freshwater to the ocean, which may disturb ocean circulation and thus
regional climate.
Recent ice loss events




A major ice loss to northern Greenland's Petermann glacier occurred when the glacier lost 33
square miles (85 km2) of floating ice between 2000 and 2001.
Between 2001 and 2005, a breakup of Sermeq Kujalleq erased 36 square miles (93 km2) from
the ice field and raised awareness worldwide of glacial response to global climate change.
In July 2008, researchers monitoring daily satellite images discovered that a 11-square-mile (28
km2) piece of Petermann broke away.
Two years later, in August 2010, a sheet of ice measuring 260 square kilometres (100 sq mi)
broke off from the Petermann Glacier. Researchers from the Canadian Ice Service located the
calving from NASA satellite images taken on August 5th. The images showed that Petermann lost
about one-quarter of its 70 km-long (43 mile) floating ice shelf.
Ice sheet acceleration
Two mechanisms have been utilized to explain the change in velocity of the Greenland Ice Sheets
outlet glaciers. The first is the enhanced meltwater effect, which relies on additional surface melting,
funneled through moulins reaching the glacier base and reducing the friction through a higher basal
water pressure. (It should be noted that not all meltwater is retained in the ice sheet and some
moulins drain into the ocean, with varying rapidity.) This idea, was observed to be the cause of a
brief seasonal acceleration of up to 20 % on Sermeq Kujalleq in 1998 and 1999 at Swiss Camp. (The
acceleration lasted two-three months and was less than 10% in 1996 and 1997 for example. They
offered a conclusion that the “coupling between surface melting and ice-sheet flow provides a
mechanism for rapid, large-scale, dynamic responses of ice sheets to climate warming”. Examination
of recent rapid supra-glacial lake drainage documented short term velocity changes due to such
events, but they had little significance to the annual flow of the large glaciers outlet glaciers. The
second mechanism is a force imbalance at the calving front due to thinning causing a substantial
non-linear response. In this case an imbalance of forces at the calving front propagates up-glacier.
Thinning causes the glacier to be more buoyant, reducing frictional back forces, as the glacier
becomes more afloat at the calving front. The reduced friction due to greater buoyancy allows for an
increase in velocity. This is akin to letting off the emergency brake a bit. The reduced resistive force
at the calving front is then propagated up glacier via longitudinal extension because of the backforce
reduction. For ice streaming sections of large outlet glaciers (in Antarctica as well) there is always
water at the base of the glacier that helps lubricate the flow. This water is, however, generally from
basal processes, not surface melting.
If the enhanced meltwater effect is the key then since meltwater is a seasonal input, velocity would
have a seasonal signal and all glaciers would experience this effect. If the force imbalance effect is
the key the velocity will propagate up-glacier, there will be no seasonal cycle, and the acceleration
will be focused on calving glaciers. In each case the major outlet glaciers accelerated by at least 50%,
31
much larger than the impact noted due to summer meltwater increase. On each glacier the
acceleration was not restricted to the summer, persisting through the winter when surface
meltwater is absent.
Increased precipitation
Warmer temperatures in the region have brought increased precipitation to Greenland, and part of
the lost mass has been offset by increased snowfall. However, there are only a small number of
weather stations on the island, and though Satellite data can examine the entire island, it has only
been available since the early 1990s, making trending difficult. It has been observed that there is
more precipitation where it is warmer, on the SE flank, and where cooler, less or nil.
Rate of change
Several factors determine the net rate of growth or decline. These are



accumulation of snow in the central parts
melting of ice along the sheet's margins (runoff) and bottom,
iceberg calving into the sea from outlet glaciers also along the sheet's edges
IPCC estimates in their third assessment
report the accumulation to 520 ± 26
Gigatonnes of ice per year, runoff and
bottom melting to 297±32 Gt/yr and 32±3
Gt/yr, respectively, and iceberg production
to 235±33 Gt/yr. On balance, the IPCC
estimates -44 ± 53 Gt/yr, which means that
the ice sheet may currently be melting. The
most recent research using data from 1996
to 2005 shows that the ice sheet is thinning
even faster than supposed by IPCC.
According to the study, in 1996 Greenland
was losing about 96 km3 or 23.0 cu mi per
year in mass from its ice sheet. In 2005, this
had increased to about 220 km3 or 52.8 cu
mi a year due to rapid thinning near its
coasts, while in 2006 it was estimated at
239 km3 (57.3 cu mi) per year.
At this rate of ice loss the Greenland ice
sheet would melt in 11,900 years. It was
estimated that in the year 2007 Greenland ice sheet melting was higher than ever, 592 km3 (142.0
cu mi). Also snowfall was unusually low, which lead to unprecedented negative -65 km3 (−15.6 cu
mi) Surface Mass Balance. If iceberg calving has happened as an average, Greenland lost 294 Gt of its
mass during 2007 (one km3 of ice weights about 0.9 Gt).
According to the 2007 report from the IPCC, it is hard to measure the mass balance precisely, but
most results indicate accelerating mass loss from Greenland during the 1990s up to 2005.
Assessment of the data and techniques suggests a mass balance for the Greenland Ice Sheet ranging
32
between growth of 25 Gt/yr and loss of 60 Gt/yr for 1961 to 2003, loss of 50 to 100 Gt/yr for 1993 to
2003 and loss at even higher rates between 2003 and 2005.
A paper on Greenland's temperature record shows that the warmest year on record was 1941 while
the warmest decades were the 1930s and 1940s. The data used was from stations on the south and
west coasts, most of which did not operate continuously the entire study period.
While Arctic temperatures have generally increased, there is some discussion over the temperatures
over Greenland. First of all, Arctic temperatures are highly variable, making it difficult to discern
clear trends at a local level. Also, until recently, an area in the North Atlantic including southern
Greenland was one of the only areas in the World showing cooling rather than warming in recent
decades, but this cooling has now been replaced by strong warming in the period 1979–2005.
33
34
Chapter 5 – Greenland Flora and Fauna
We call Greenland “Kalaallit Nunaat”, the Greenlanders’ Land. However, in reality it is just as much
the Wildlife’s Land. The world’s largest island contains a wealth of fascinating species of animal that
have all adapted to the Arctic climate both on land and in the water.
The polar bear is the biggest predator and perhaps the essence of the term wildlife. The white polar
bear adorns Greenland’s national coat of arms as the symbol for an extensive country that is also
home to other distinctive animals such as the musk ox, the narwhal and the walrus.
Along with the reindeer, the musk ox is one of the land mammals which travellers have the greatest
chance of seeing, especially in the vicinity of Kangerlussuaq. The polar bear is a rare visitor to
inhabited areas, and is often seen in remote hunting grounds in North- and East Greenland. Wolves,
arctic foxes, mountain hares and other small land mammals are also found, but are not often seen
close to civilisation. Around 60 species of bird breed in Greenland, including the white-tailed eagle.
Whales can be seen all over Greenland, particularly during the summer months. It is most common
to see fin whales, humpback whales and minke whales, in addition to which species such as the
bowhead whale, blue whale and sperm whale also frequent Greenlandic waters.
The land mammals immigrated, just like humans, from Canada and Alaska several thousand years
ago. Both land and sea mammals have always been an important resource for Greenlanders. The
animals have played a key role for their means of existence and in terms of their philosophy of life.
Today hunting is an important source of income for only a handful of Greenlanders. For the vast
majority it is simply a hobby. Sustainable trophy hunting of animals such as musk oxen and seals is
open to tourists at certain places in Greenland. The hunt takes place with qualified guides who
ensure a proper hunt where nothing goes to waste.
Polar bear
The polar bear is the world’s largest land-based predator, and is thus larger than other species of
bear. Its fascinating strength has made it a popular symbol of strength in the Arctic world, and the
Government of Greenland uses the polar bear in the official national coat of arms.
In Greenland the polar bear lives and breeds
in the northernmost parts of West Greenland
and in Northeast Greenland, but is also
occasionally seen elsewhere in Greenland, as
it moves with the drifting ice. However, it is
extremely rare for either local inhabitants or
tourists to see a living polar bear. The chances
of seeing a polar bear are greatest when
sailing by ship along the coast. They are
relatively easy to spot due to their off-white
fur, which is clearly distinguishable against the
pack ice or the landscape.
The Greenlandic polar bear may only be hunted in quite special circumstances, but when an animal
is killed there is – as with all other animals captured in Greenland – a tradition for utilising the whole
35
animal. For example, the meat is eaten, the skull is used as a trophy, the claws as jewellery and the
hide for trousers or kamik.
The polar bear is not threatened by hunting, but rather by environmental pollution. So-called POPs
(persistent organic pollutants) have been discovered in very high concentrations in polar bears from
East Greenland and Svalbard. This has led to concern about the polar bear’s ability to reproduce. At
the same time the effects of global warming mean that the Arctic ice is melting, thereby further
reducing the polar bear’s natural habitat.
Musk ox
The musk ox is the largest land mammal in Greenland. When approaching Kangerlussuaq you may
be lucky enough to get a unique glimpse of one of the many herds of musk oxen in the area. From
the plane they can look like large brown stony knolls – until they begin moving, and then you know
that they are musk oxen weighing up to 400 kilos (880 lbs) each.
You do not have to venture far from the airport
area in Kangerlussuaq before there are good
chances of seeing the large animals at closer
range. The most obvious method is to go on a
musk ox safari. A slightly more spectacular
alternative a few years ago was to see Willy, an
enormous bull, on the runway itself. Fortunately
this is no longer possible as neither Willy nor
other members of his species have access to the
airport anymore. At Kangerlussuaq Museum
you can learn more about Willy’s fate.
Directly translated, “Umimmak”, the Greenlandic name for the musk ox, means “the long-bearded
one”. This long “beard” is one of the things that can be used by the Greenlanders. The musk ox’s
innermost coat, the wool layer, can be used to make a wealth of exclusive handicrafts and clothing.
Musk ox migration
Around 5,000 years ago the musk ox migrated into Greenland over the sea ice from north-eastern
Canada. At the same time, the country’s first human inhabitants, the Independence people, who
lived on the musk ox, came into the country. At that time neither kayaks nor umiaks had been
invented, so the nomadic race survived by hunting land mammals and fishing from the coast and in
rivers.
The original musk ox population lives in Northeast Greenland, and from here animals have been
transferred to other places in Greenland, including the Ivittuut area, the Naternaq plain southeast of
Aasiaat and the area around Kangerlussuaq. Animals have also been exported to Alaska, Svalbard,
Scandinavia and several zoological gardens.
The natural conditions around Kangerlussuaq have proved to be particularly favourable for the musk
ox. Thus the 27 animals that were transferred in 1962 and 1965 have developed into a population
that today stands at 7,000 – 10,000 animals, one of the world’s largest concentrations of musk oxen.
Furthermore, the animals at Kangerlussuaq are bigger and reproduce more quickly than those in
other parts of Greenland.
36
Musk oxen can be seen within walking distance of inhabited areas. The local tour operators in
Kangerlussuaq know as a rule where the animals are, and there are therefore good chances of
seeing them on one of the musk ox safaris for which the area is renowned.
Characteristics of the musk ox
The musk ox is a characteristic animal with the Latin generic name ‘ovibus’, which means sheep ox. It
is thus more closely related to the sheep than the ox. It can grow to a height of 140 cm (4½ feet), a
length of 2 metres (6½ feet) and weigh up to 400 kg (880 lbs).
The musk ox has two coats – the inner fine wool layer and the outer 60 cm (24 inch) long guard
hairs, which form the basis for the musk ox’s Greenlandic name ‘Umimmak’, ‘the long-bearded one’.
Every summer the musk ox sheds its outer layer of wool, and it is from this wool that some of the
world’s finest and softest yarn is made.
Keep your distance from the musk ox herd. Musk oxen have a herd instinct and they protect each
other when threatened. If you keep your distance, the herd will practically ignore you. However, you
have got too close if a group of animals forms a circle and a bull steps forward.
If the bull steps even closer, paws the ground and snorts, there is a risk that it may attack.
Depending on the situation, the critical distance between you and the animals will be about 50-100
metres (160-330 feet). If you have got too close, retire calmly without making any noise or sudden
movements.
Greenlandic reindeer
Reindeer have lived in the Arctic for thousands of years and during that time have made up a major
part of the staple diet of humans living in the area.
The reindeer in Greenland belongs to the deer
family and is the only species of deer in
Greenland. At the same time the reindeer is
the most widespread land mammal on most of
the west coast of Greenland. There are
therefore good chances of seeing reindeer on
a hike in the Greenlandic fells, in particular in
the area between Paamiut and Uummannaq.
The reindeer is a shy animal, and reacts very
quickly to sudden sounds or movements as
well as the smell of strangers. If you want the chance to take pictures or even just approach a
reindeer, you must as far as possible approach it downwind so that the reindeer will have more
difficulty in smelling you. Once it catches your scent, the reindeer can gallop away at a speed of 70
kilometres an hour (45 mph). However, if there is a large herd of reindeer, it is more likely that they
will just continue chewing their food, as they feel more secure when many of them are gathered
together.
In the late summer or autumn you can see reindeer being hunted at many places on Greenland’s
west coast. In the harbour areas you can see people sailing in with the spoils of the hunt, where
much of the meat is sold at “the board”, which is a local meat and fish market. Outside private
homes you can see meat maturing or drying. Dishes with reindeer meat are a real Greenlandic
delicacy served at many hotels and restaurants.
37
At many places in Greenland you can buy souvenirs fashioned from reindeer antlers.
Arctic fox
In Greenland there are two species of the arctic fox, the white and the blue, which both change
colour during the summer and winter. The white arctic fox’s coat changes during the summer to a
more mottled grey-brown shade on the back with grey and white tones on the belly. The blue arctic
fox changes from a dark grey-brown summer coat to a grey-black coat in the winter with a bluish
tinge.
It is estimated that there are similar numbers of both
species in Greenland, except during the years in which
the lemming population is in decline. Lemmings are the
white arctic fox’s most important prey, and a fall in the
population of lemmings consequently also has an impact
on the number of white arctic foxes.
The arctic fox is a carnivore that lives on the remains of
the polar bear’s prey, as well as mountain hares,
lemmings, fish, crustaceans, molluscs, mussels, bird’s
eggs, and also insects and berries. The white arctic fox finds most of its food on the tundra, whilst
the blue arctic fox forages along the coast where it finds its food in connection with tidal
movements.
The arctic fox can weigh up to 8 kilos (17½ lbs), and grow to a length of 70 cm (27 inches) with a tail
of 35 cm (14 inches). The arctic fox is found all over Greenland and is only hunted to a limited extent.
It is not a threatened species.
Birdlife of Greenland
The majority of Greenland’s birds are migratory birds, and there are therefore only around 60
species that are regarded as permanent breeders in the country. A total of 235 species of bird have
been observed in Greenland, and you can read about the most common or the most spectacular
breeding birds below:
White-tailed eagle – the largest bird of prey
Among the most striking species is the white-tailed eagle – or nattoralik, as it is called in
Greenlandic. The white-tailed eagle is Greenland’s largest breeding bird. It lives primarily on fish
such as cod and char, but also on carrion and sea birds such as eider. The Greenlandic white-tailed
eagle is slightly bigger than its counterparts in other parts of the world. It is found in particular along
the southern part of the west coast down to Cape Farewell. The white-tailed eagle is a fully
protected species in Greenland.
Fulmar – the characteristic petrel
The fulmar – qaqulluk – is a compact little gliding bird which is often seen with stiff wings hovering
just above the water, even when the sea is rough. It resembles the seagull, but is actually a separate
species. The fulmar is the bird that is seen most frequently in Greenlandic waters, particularly at
Disko Bay and further to the north.
38
The black guillemot – the most common auk
This auk is the most common breeding bird in Greenland, and is often seen on the wing just above
the water or at some of the country’s major bird colonies. The Brünnich’s guillemot (appa) is another
important auk, whose breast is a popular delicacy found on the menu of many restaurants.
Eider – a common sea duck
The eider, or aavooq, is the most important breeding wild fowl in Greenland. It is particularly
common in coastal regions all over Greenland and broods on small islands and rocks. When young,
the bird is almost indistinguishable from the king eider (miteq siorakitsoq), which is also a sea duck,
but which is most common in the northeast of Greenland.
Ptarmigan – Greenland’s only gallinaceous bird
The ptarmigan – aqisseq – breeds all over Greenland and can be seen in practically any sort of
terrain. It is a popular delicacy and the population thus varies from year to year. The ptarmigan
changes its plumage according to the season, and is thus white in the winter and grey in the
summer.
Other birds in Greenland
In addition to the birds above, a number of other birds should also be mentioned. This applies in
particular to the black raven, which is probably the bird that the majority of people notice. The raven
is in the crow family and breeds all over the country. Its characteristic croaking call can be heard very
clearly if you are out hiking. The snow bunting is another very common bird that leaves Greenland in
about September and returns in March. Greenland also has two species of falcon – the peregrine
falcon and the gerfalcon – which are both protected species.
Flora of Greenland
Greener than you think. Colourful flowers, plants, bushes and heaths make beautiful contrasts to the
icebergs and the white expanse of the ice sheet in Greenland. Tourists visiting the country for the
first time or airline passengers at an altitude of 10 km (33,000 feet) are rarely inclined to believe that
Greenland can offer such green scenery and fertile landscapes – but do not let yourself be fooled by
the Arctic nature.
If you arrive during the summer via the two international airports in Kangerlussuaq and Narsarsuaq,
you will meet a Greenland that lives up to its name. Here, in the mild climate at the base of the
extensive fjords, you will notice in particular the greyleaf willow that often grows to the height of a
man. Cruise guests who venture into the old quarters of the town cannot fail to see the idyllic
houses with green gardens and flowerbeds resplendent in all the colours of the rainbow.
During the brief and intense Arctic summer the mountain landscapes are adorned with a wealth of
colours from flowers, herbs, mosses and heather. Five types of orchid flower in Greenland. There are
even small trees that grow in the innermost fjords in Southern Greenland! Further north, Disko
Island is a paradise for flora-lovers. Half of Greenland’s more than 500 species of flowering plants,
horsetails and ferns are found on the old volcanic island.
Common flowers
Although Greenland geographically belongs to North America, the majority of plant species originate
from Europe. Greenland’s national flower, Niviarsiaq, which means ‘young woman’, is, however,
most common in North America.
39
Greenlandic Bluebells
The flower is also known as broad-leaf fireweed, and is found all over the country. It is particularly
common in stony soils and sandy riverbeds.
The Greenlandic bluebell can be seen as far north as Upernavik in North Greenland and on the east
coast up to Daneborg. The bog blueberry has sweet blueberries, whilst the more common mountain
crowberry produces tasty blackberries that are popular ingredients in many Greenlandic desserts
and as an accompaniment to boiled cod liver.
Handbooks about Greenlandic flora
Multilingual handbooks about Greenlandic flora can be bought in bookshops in major towns. Along
with your photos from Greenland, such books might be able to convince your family and friends that
there is a lot more to Greenland than just the ice sheet and icebergs!
40
Chapter 7 – Articles for discussion
Temperatures in Greenland rising twice as fast as global average
Todd Hanson
Source: Los Alamos National Laboratory Newsletter – 26 September 2005
The Danmarkshavn weather station lies on the northeastern coast of Greenland. Sitting on a mile
thick sheet of inland ice, Danmarkshavn was recently instrumental in helping scientists at the
Laboratory and the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich, Switzerland discover
that the rate of temperature increase due to global warming along Greenland’s northeastern shore
is more than twice that of the global average. The discovery could help climatologists better
understand the mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The melting of Greenland’s Ice Sheet
would result in a significant global rise in sea levels.
In a paper published recently in Geophysical Research Letters and highlighted in Nature, Petr Chylek
of Space and Remote Sensing Sciences (ISR-2) and Ulrike Lohmann of the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology showed that North Atlantic Oscillations dominate temperature changes in most of the
Greenland. The NAO is a rhythmic air pressure pattern in the North Atlantic region of the planet that
results in regional climate variability, especially in swings in winter temperatures. Although climate
records show Greenland has been predominantly cooling since the 1930s, that cooling actually may
be due to the influences of local climate patterns such as the NAO.
It is only the northeastern coast of Greenland with the Danmarkshavn meteorological station that
seems to be not affected by the patterns of the NAO. Thus this is a suitable place to test the
predictions of the climate models concerning the temperature changes in Greenland and their
relation to global warming, says Chylek. According to Chylek, “For some time now, general
circulation models have predicted that the temperature changes in Greenland should occur at a
faster rate than global temperature changes. And until recently, there has been no confirmation that
Greenland’s long-term temperature changes are related to the global warming or that they proceed
faster than the global temperature change. Using correlations between the Greenland temperature
records, the NAO index and global temperature change, we found that the Danmarkshavn region of
Greenland appear to be unaffected by the NAO. In fact, Danmarkshavn temperatures correlate well
with rising global averages but actually seem to be rising 2.2 times as fast.”
The implications for the team’s discovery are profound. If temperatures in Greenland are, as the
climate records seem to show, actually rising rather than cooling, the Greenland Ice Sheet could
begin melting. Any significant amount of melting of this inland ice could result in a potentially
catastrophic rise in global sea levels. Los Alamos’ Laboratory-Directed Research and Development
program under a research project aimed at exploring the impact of anthropogenic aerosol (small
particles emitted by burning fossil fuels and biomass) and carbon dioxide emissions, on the global
climate, provided funding for the research.
Manvendra Dubey, Los Alamos scientist and the principal investigator of the LDRD project, added “A
key finding of this paper is that only by including both aerosol and carbon dioxide increases by
humans in climate model simulations can we explain the larger warming observed in Greenland
relative to the global average warming. This is in part because aerosols tend to cool global
temperatures and mask part of the warming caused by carbon dioxide.
41
“Furthermore, the largest aerosol pollution occurs in low latitude areas of South East Asia, South
America and Africa. The distribution of observed warming is highly heterogeneous globally, largely
due to the variability in the distribution of aerosols,” said Dubey, of Hydrology, Geochemistry and
Geology (EES-6). “This creates an interesting dilemma; since we anticipate that the developing
countries will reduce aerosol emissions by switching to cleaner energy (as was done by the
developed world to clean its air) the warming effect of carbon dioxide will become more severe in
the future. This underscores the need for the developed world that dominates carbon dioxide
emissions today [to] work in synergy with the developing world that dominates aerosol emissions
today, to help mitigate the risks of future climate change from energy-related effluents,” said Dubey.
Climate Change in Greenland: Impacts and Response
Anna Heilmann ([email protected])
Introduction
I am a member of the Inuit people of Greenland. I have a Masters in political science from the
University of Copenhagen, so I experience the effects of climate change as an Indigenous woman
whose culture and livelihood is directly affected, and as a political scientist. For the past year, I have
been working with projects. The latest project was an Arctic Council report about women´s
participation in decision-making processes in Arctic fisheries resources management. I have no
formal training in climate change research, but climate change impacts in Greenland are so
widespread that all projects have to deal with it.
The geography of Greenland
Greenland is the biggest island in the world, covering 2,166,086 square kilometres. 2000 estimates
tells about 1,755,637 sq km of the land is covered by ice. If you put Greenland on the map of Europe,
the northern tip of Greenland will be situated in the northern part of Norway and the sourthern tip
of Greenland will be on North Africa, or roughly three times the size of Texas. The total population
numbers only 55,000 of which 45,000 are Inuit. Most of the remaining 10,000 non-Indigenous
people are Danes working in Greenland for a longer or shorter period of time. There are a further
10,000 Greenlandic Inuit people in the rest of the world, most of them living or studying in Denmark.
Our culture and ethnicity is closely related to Inuit in Alaska and Canada and our Greenlandic
language is also almost the same. We have home rule under the state of Denmark.
The main export is fish and seafood, so you can say we live off the sea. Inuit people have always
hunted on the sea ice, so in a very real sense, we also live on the sea. Subsistence hunting and
fishing is the main livelihood in the North and Eest of greenland, which is why changes in sea ice
have such a powerful effect on our lives and culture.
The Greenland Ice Cap holds 9% of the fresh water resources in the world. If all of the ice cap were
to melt, global sea level would rise substantially. Greenland ice thus has an enormous impact on the
rest of the world. It is in the ice cap and in the weather conditions in Greenland that the climate
changes in the world can be measured. The major geographic impacts of climate change in
Greenland are melting of the ice cap, thinner sea ice and melting permafrost.
Melting of the ice cap
In 1995 a glacier in Kangerlussuaq, close to the Atlantic airport in midwest Greenland, moved 6 km
(or 3,73 miles) to the sea during one year. Today, only 10 years later, it is moving at 14 km (or 8,70
miles) during one year, more than twice as fast. This rate of movement is so fast that new snowfall is
not sufficient to maintain the ice cap. Land, which previously has been covered with the ice cap for
42
centuries, is now visible. Another climate change impact is that the warmer sea, which is no longer
covered by the insulating sea ice, warms up the weather and makes the weather more wet and
instable and impacts the climate as well. With more delays and cancellations of flights because of
storms and snowfall, this affects airplane and helicopter traffic, making transportation more difficult
and expensive.
Thinner sea ice in winter
In the north of Greenland from the Arctic Circle towards the North, sea ice traditionally lasted for 8
months from October to May, or longer. Today, sea ice is lacking or so fragile that it makes all forms
of transportation difficult. With unstable ice you might imagine ships can get through more easily,
but clumps of ice make it impossible for ships or boats to get through, but also impossible to
dogsledges or snowmobiles to drive on. Sea ice was traditionally used to connect the towns and
villages in the north. When sea ice is lacking or too unstable, dogsledges can no longer be used in the
sea ice for hunting and the villages become more isolated.
Melting of the permafrost
Buildings constructed on permafrost are becoming increasingly unstable, requiring expensive repair.
New buildings will require different, and likely more expensive construction techniques. Roads and
airport runways build on permafrost are now unstable and hard to maintain. The ice cap, permafrost
and sea ice are all critical to the geography and economy of Greenland as a whole, and essential to
the economy, social structure and culture of Inuit people.
Ecological-social-cultural impact of climate change
The major impact is on the traditional culture and livelihood of Inuit hunters, particularly in the
North. Sea ice is essential for hunting and as a way to connect communities. Major impacts include
the likely disappearance of seals and polar bear. Thinner sea ice will not support dogsledges, and
hunters cannot feed their dogs with fewer hunting days.
Last year the hunters in Qaanaaq, the northernmost municipality close to Thule, made a plea to the
public that their dogs were starving. With no ice, hunters barely got enough to feed their families,
with nothing left over for the dogs. With lower income, they could not afford to buy dry dog food, so
the dogs were starving. The whole nation came to their support. The Home Rule Administration had
to provide the hunters with catastrophe aid from public funding, which brought money to the
hunters. Fish industries sent fish with aeroplanes to the north. We fear that that the problem will be
repeated every year. The small municipality of Qaanaaq is still coping with after-effects of the crisis,
and there are discussions to transfer from hunting to tourism. But the transition takes pain, money
and time. Climate change is catastrophic for the hunters in Greenland!
In Upernavik, the next northernmost municipality next to Qaanaaq, they tell that since the year 2000
the sea ice comes later than usual and is too fragile to be used. They get more snow and have now
unstable weather conditions. With no sea ice to travel on, the connections between the 11 villages
in the municipality are broken. In Upernavik they previously never had the fish lumpsucker in the
spring. The last years the income from lumpsucker roes has been a new positive possibility for the
hunters, at the northern part of Greenland.
‘Traditional’ species such as shrimp and seals are becoming scarcer, ‘new’ species such as
lumpsucker have already appeared at Upernavik, while warmer water species such as cod can be
expected to move north as the water warms. This could lead to new opportunities, but fishers and
hunters must learn new technologies and culture to adapt to the new species and a different
climate. With the right planning, there could be some positive economic benefits to fishers. Loss of
43
ice cover and a warmer climate could also lead to a growth in agriculture, but again, planning will be
needed.
1
Women interviewed for the 2004 Arctic Council Report described the impact of climate change on
the hunters. Women from a village in the Disco Bay area told that they might as well say that the
dogsledge is only a sport now! Last time they had proper sea ice, from which the hunters could hunt
from, was in 1998. Since then the ice comes too late and is too fragile to hunt from. The ice comes
only at the beach and only for about a week.
The hunters now feed their dogs just to keep the dogs. They use them only in races or sports in
competitions inside the village area. The dogs are a necessity to the dogsledge, during the long
winters with solid sea ice and down to minus 40 degrees Celsius. With solid sea ice, ships are not
used and the small villages don’t have airtransport. With the dogsledge you can hunt your food and
travel to other villages and towns.
So, I repeat again: the climate change is catastrophic to the Greenlandic hunter and the Greenlandic
dogsledge and the Greenlandic culture!
What is being done?
What is being done in Greenland is not restoration. Because, how can we restore our weather,
climate and ice? The Greenlandic Home Rule wants to limit the emission of greenhouse gases and
has a policy to meet energy needs from natural sources. Hydro-electric power has the potential to
supply all the demand for energy in Greenland many times over. However, potential projects are
situated in remote areas, making construction difficult and costly. The population in Greenland is
sparse, located in small communities spread out over a huge area, so it would be extremely costly to
build transmission lines. Nevertheless, Nuuk, the capital of Greenland has a power station, and
Tasiilaq in East Greenland has also a power station. One power station is now being build in South
Greenland and the second largest town, Sisimiut has also decided to have their own power station.
The massive impacts of climate change on Greenland’s geography, infrastructure, biology and
culture, are discussed intensively in the population on a daily basis and in the media. Politicians who
talk to the media express a willingness to do something about the impacts of climate change, but
actions so far have been limited to investigations, documentation and research.
There are various Greenlandic institutions who work with documentations of climate change, the
impact of melting of the ice cap and the sea ice and socioeconomic impact. The following is a brief
description of some of the different initiatives. Additional information can be obtained from the
Internet and by contacting the institutions directly:
The Nature Institute of Greenland participates in EcoGreen, an international research program
involving 33 institutions from 11 countries. The research programme objective is to link the
ecological and socio-economic relations between climate, ecology and people in Greenland. Further
informations on www.natur.gl
ASIAQ – Greenland Survey has in cooperation with ARTEK, Arctic Technology Center
(www.arktiskcenter.gl) started a project called “Permafrost in Greenland. Changes and
consequences driven by the climate.” The project investigates the impacts of melting of the
permafrost on roads, airport runways, buildings and in populated areas. This project is a cooperation
between Denmark’s University of Technology (www.dtu.dk), the Danish Institute of Meteorology
and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Further informations on www.asiaq.gl
44
1
Arctic Council (2004) Women´s Participation in Decision-making Processes in Arctic Fisheries Resource
Mangement. (Ed. Lindis Sloan) Forlaget Nora, Kvinneuniversitetet Nord, N-8286 Nordfold
ICC, which is the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, has initiated a project called “Sila – Inuk”, to study
the impact of climate change in Greenland. ICC and KNAPK, the Greenlandic hunters and fishers
organization cooperate in the project. The aim is to collect climate change observations made by the
residents of Greenland. The University of Colorado at Boulder is also a partner in the study. Further
informations on www.icc.gl
The Greenlandic Home Rule is closely monitoring the socioeconomic conditions for the Greenlandic
hunters. A socioeconomic analysis of the conditions of the hunters was conducted from Roskilde
University Center on behalf of the Greenlandic Home Rule. The analysis is meant to form the basis of
an action plan for the hunters and is planned to be a continued analysis throughout the years.
Further informations on www.nanoq.gl
The government of the Home Rule is also represented in the work of the Arctic Council through
participation in various working groups, to ensure a follow up of the ACIA- climate report.
Is the work adequate?
Due to the enormous impact of the climate change to the infrastructure and to the culture, I think
the work to ensure a smooth transition from hunters trade to other kind of livelyhood is inadequate.
As the situation now appears, it seems like the Home Rule might need to give catastrophe aid to the
hunters every year. When the catastrophy happens every year now, it cannot be a surprise anymore.
There is a lot of planning, work and initating the transition ahead of us. And so far we have not heard
so much about it.
Greenland and Climate Science
Greenland’s Ice Sheet
Ice sheets (larger than 50,000 km2) exist in only two places on Earth, in Greenland and in Antarctica.
The Greenland ice sheet covers about 80% of the island, or more than 1.7 million km2. At its highest
point, the ice sheet rises 3,200 meters above sea level. This enormous ice sheet contains 8% of
Earth’s total fresh water. It is believed that were the ice sheet to completely melt, global mean sea
level would rise by about 7 meters. Current research suggests that the Greenland ice sheet is losing
about 100 gigatons (or 100 billion tons) of mass a year, which is equivalent to a rise in sea level of
about 0.28 mm/year.
Ice Melt and Acceleration
The balance between snow accumulation and melt water runoff affects how much the Greenland ice
sheet contributes to sea level rise at any given time; however, scientists also believe that ice
dynamics, or changes in how the ice flows towards the sea, play an important role in determining
whether the ice sheet gains or loses mass. Satellite observations suggest that Greenlandic glaciers
have accelerated by 20- 100% and are draining ice into the sea at a more rapid rate than before.3
Jakobshavn Isbrae is Greenland’s largest outlet glacier and it is the fastest moving glacier in the
world. Discharge from the Jakobshavn glacier increased from 24 km3 of ice per year in 1996 to 46
km3 of ice per year in 2005.
Glacial earthquakes, sometimes called icequakes, or sudden glacial-sliding motions, may also
quicken the processes by which outlet glaciers thin and discharge ice into the sea. Scientists also
believe that meltwater acts as a lubricant at the base of the ice sheet, speeding up the ice as it slides
45
towards the coast. The meltwater makes its way from the surface of the ice sheet to the bedrock via
a network of crevasses and large tunnels called moulins that may be up to 10 meters in diameter.
Using Global Positioning Satellite measurements, researchers have discovered that the ice flow
speeds up from 31.3 cm/day in winter to a peak of 40 cm/day in the summer, when more melting
occurs.
Swiss Camp
Swiss Camp, a research station located about 300 km north of Kangerlussuaq and 30 km from the ice
edge, is located strategically near the equilibrium line altitude of the ice sheet – the altitude which
divides the regions of net annual accumulation and ablation (mass loss). Swiss Camp was built by Dr.
Konrad Steffen, a native of Switzerland and the current director of the Cooperative Institute for
Research in Environmental Sciences. Dr. Steffen is also a Professor of Geography at the University of
Colorado at Boulder.
Swiss Camp is just one point in the Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net), which consists of 23
automatic weather stations, most of which were established between 1995 and 2006. Greenland
Climate Network GC-Net is part of NASA’s Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA)
and is managed by Dr. Steffen. The stations, which are five-meter-tall towers, host instruments that
measure a variety of climate variables:





air temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and humidity at multiples levels
snow accumulation rate
surface radiation balance in visible and infrared wavelengths
sensible and latent heat flux fluxes
snowpack conductive heat fluxes
Because of snow accumulation or melt around the stations, each station requires maintenance every
few years.
Studying Greenland from Space
In addition to using the in situ automatic weather stations, scientists study Greenland remotely using
satellites. NASA’s GRACE satellites, which measure changes in Earth’s gravity field caused by
variations in our planet’s mass, allowed scientists to determine that from 2004 to 2006, Greenland
lost ice 2.5 times faster than in the previous two years. Scientists also use radar, laser, and passive
microwave technologies to measure Greenland ice melt remotely.
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International Polar Year
Greenland research during the 2007 and 2008 field seasons will be an integral part of International
Polar Year or IPY, which kicked off in March 2007. IPY is an international effort involving thousands
of scientists from 63 countries who will be working on climate- related research efforts in the Arctic
and Antarctica, studying ice, oceans, ecosystems, the atmosphere and their links with each other.
Learn more at www.ipy.org.
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Changes in the Velocity Structure of the Greenland Ice Sheet
Eric Rignot and Pannir Kanagaratnam
14 October 2005; accepted 17 January 2006
10.1126/science.1121381
Using satellite radar interferometry observations of Greenland, we detected widespread glacier acceleration below 66- north
between 1996 and 2000, which rapidly expanded to 70- north in 2005. Accelerated ice discharge in the west and particularly
in the east doubled the ice sheet mass deficit in the last decade from 90 to 220 cubic kilometers per year. As more glaciers
accelerate farther north, the contribution of Greenland to sea-level rise will continue to increase.
The contribution of the Greenland Ice Sheet to sea level is a problem of considerable societal and scientific importance.
Repeat-pass airborne laser altimetry measurements (1) showed that the ice sheet is nearly in balance in the interior but its
periphery is thinning, with deterioration concentrated along the channels occupied by outlet glaciers (2). The most recent
surveys revealed that the mass loss from the periphery is increasing with time, with approximately half of the increase
caused by enhanced runoff and half by enhanced glacier flow (3). Although these airborne surveys crisscrossed a large
fraction of Greenland, they left major gaps in glacier coverage, particularly in the southeast and northwest. The mass loss
from nonsurveyed glaciers was estimated using an ice melt model, thereby assuming no temporal changes in ice flow. If
glacier dynamics is an important factor, the contribution to sea level from Greenland is underestimated using this approach.
To address this issue and understand the exact partitioning between surface mass balance and ice dynamics, it is essential to
estimate glacier discharge and its variability over time.
Here, we measure glacier velocities using satellite radar interferometry data collected by Radarsat-1 in fall 2000 (4, 5) along
the entire coast of Greenland except the southwest (Fig. 1) and repeatedly in spring and summer 2005 along selected tracks
covering major glaciers. We also use European Remote Sensing satellites ERS-1 and ERS-2 data from winter 1996 in the
north, east, northwest, and central west, and Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) data from summer 2004 in
the southwest. Ice velocity is measured with a precision of 10 to 30 m/year depending on satellite, data quality, and
processing and is combined with ice thickness to calculate ice discharge.
Ice thickness is estimated with a precision of 10 m
from airborne radio echo sounding data collected in
1997 to 2005 (6). Although grounding-line
thicknesses of glaciers extending into floating ice
tongues in the north are well known, ice thickness is
difficult to measure at the fronts of calving glaciers in
other parts of Greenland where no floating ice
tongues develop. Ice thickness is only known several
km upstream of the ice fronts. Ice fluxes are thus
calculated at these upstream flux gates with a
precision of 4%. Ice-front discharge is deduced from
the upstream flux by subtracting a zero-anomaly
surface mass balance (7) between the flux gate and
the ice front. The correction is small (Table 1). Icefront discharge is initially calculated for 1996 if data
are available; otherwise, it is calculated for 2000. Icefront discharge in subsequent years is obtained by
multiplying the reference discharge by the percentage
velocity increase averaged at the ice front, with a
precision reduced to 10% because ice thickness is
assumed to be steady. This approach alleviates the
lack of frontal thickness data, accounts for higher
dynamic losses nearer to the ice fronts, but omits
dynamic losses below flux gates in the referenceyear
calculation. Mass loss for each glacier system is
deduced from the ice-front discharge in excess of the
zero-anomaly surface mass balance calculated for the
entire drainage, with a precision of 14% (Table 1).
We examined the seasonal variability in flow speed
of major glaciers in fall 2000. We found no velocity
change from September to January at the 1%level
over the 24-day averaging period of Radarsat-1. On
the Petermann Glacier (1 in Fig. 1), a continuous set
of observations in 2004 reveals an 8% increase in the
summer months compared to winter (Fig. 2A). A
similar seasonality is detected on Nioghalvfjerdsbrae
48
and all southeast Greenland glaciers and has been observed on Jakobshavn Isbrae (8) and Columbia Glacier, Alaska (9).
Winter velocities are therefore only 2% lower than the annual means, and flow changes must exceed 8% to be significant.
No seasonal correction is applied to our data to compensate for the fact that surface velocities may represent 97 to 99% of
vertically integrated velocities at the flux gates.
A nearly comprehensive estimate of ice discharge around Greenland is obtained for year 2000, and partial coverage for 1996
and 2005. The results are used to detect changes in ice discharge around the periphery caused by ice dynamics alone and
determine their impact on ice sheet mass balance, independent of temporal changes in surface mass balance, i.e.,
accumulation and melt.
Many changes in velocity are observed in the north, but they are of little consequence to total mass balance. Harald Moltke
Glacier was surging in 2005 after a quiescent phase. Nearby Tracy and Heilprin glaciers accelerated 40%and 18% in 2000 to
2005 (Fig. 2L), but the corresponding mass loss is small. Petermann Glacier has been stable since 1996, and its mass balance
remains slightly negative. Academy Glacier tripled its speed in 2005 (Fig. 2C), which is typical for northern Greenland
surge-type glaciers; its mass balance averages zero over the last decade. Farther east, the mass losses from decelerating
Nioghalvfjerdsbrae and accelerating Zachariae IsstrLm compensate for the mass gain of decelerating StorstrLmmen, a surgetype glacier in a quiescent mode (Fig. 2D). Overall, the northern sector exhibits a small mass loss (Table 1).
In central east Greenland, no flow change is detected on Daugaard-Jensen (Fig. 2E) and Vestfjord glaciers (area 9) in 1996 to
2005. The 3.7-km/year frontal speed of Daugaard- Jensen is identical to that measured in 1969 (10), and the glacier is in
balance. Immediately south, Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier has been stable in speed since 1962, but was thinning and losing mass
in 1996 (11). The glacier accelerated 210% in 2000 to 2005 (Fig. 2F) to flow 13 to 14 km/year at the calving front, which is
the largest speed in Greenland. The ice front retreated about 10 km. The 8-km/year additional frontal speed over the last 30
km must have longitudinally stretched the 1-km thick ice to thin it by 250 m. The acceleration increased the mass loss from 5
km3 ice/year in 1996 (12) to 36 km3 ice/year in 2005 (Table 1), which is 6% of Greenland_s total accumulation.
Farther south, Helheim Glacier exhibited a positive mass budget in 1996 to 2004 (12) but was thinning at low elevation in
the 1990s (2). In 2000 to 2005, the glacier accelerated 60% and retreated 5 km (Fig. 2G). The 6-km/year increment in speed
over 40 km must have thinned the glacier by 75 m. Its mass balance decreased from positive in 1996 to j12 km3 ice/year in
2005, which is half the glacier annual accumulation.
49
Even more pronounced changes are taking place in the southeast, where most glaciers have no names (names in Fig. 2I are
mostly associated with fjords) and are rarely visited. Snow accumulation is the highest in Greenland, causing high rates of
ice discharge per unit area. This region was rapidly thinning up to the ice divide in the 1990s (1) and losing 17 km3 ice/year
over 38,000 km2 in 1996 (12). Here, we estimate a 29-km3/year ice loss over a more comprehensive area of 73,700 km2 in
1996 (Table 1). The largest 21 glaciers accelerated 28.5% on average between 1996 and 2000 and 57% in 1996 to 2005 (Fig.
2I). Flow acceleration varies substantially among glaciers but remains widespread and systematic. Most glacier fronts
retreated several km since 1996. Total loss increased from 48 km3/year in 2000 to 67 km3/year in 2005, which is twice the
1996 value.
Few large glaciers drain the south and southwestern tips of Greenland because its ablation area is much broader and less
steep than that in the southeast, so glacier ice discharge at the coast is low. Ice was thickening inland and thinning at low
elevation in the 1990s (1). We have no thickness data and few velocity data for the largest glaciers. Nordbogletscher (area
14), Sermilik (area 15), and Kangiata nunata/ Narssap sermia (area 17) have, respectively, balance fluxes of only 1, 6.5, and
50
6 km3 ice/year, so potential mass losses from ice dynamics are small. Kangiata nunata sermia sped up by 6% in 1996 to
2000 and 27% in 2000 to 2005, whereas Narssap sermia sped up by 68% and 150% (Fig. 2K). In areas 18 and 19, where ice
flows only a few hundred meters per year, we detected a 25% acceleration in 2000 to 2005 (Fig. 2J). This region is unlikely
to experience a positive mass balance at present.
Jakobshavn Isbrae underwent a 95% increase in frontal speed in 1996 to 2005 during the progressive breakup of its floating
ice tongue (13, 14) (Fig. 2H). In retreat since before the beginning of the century, the glacier was thickening in 1993 to 1998
(2) and then thinning (15). Its ice flux, deduced from radio echo sounding and seismic data (16), was 27 km3 ice/year in
1996. Ice discharge increased from 24 km3 ice/year in 1996 to 46 km3 ice/year in 2005 (Table 1).
Farther north,Kangilerngata and Eqip sermia accelerated by 30% in 2000 to 2005, but the adjacent larger Sermeq
avangnardleq and kujatdleq slowed down by 11% (Fig. 2M), so overall losses did not change. Rinks Isbrae (area 23) did not
accelerate in 2000 to 2005 (Fig. 2N) but exhibits a negative mass balance. Similarly, Upernavik IsstrLm is 30% out of
balance andcontinues a retreat started early in this century (17). Mass balance is strongly negative as well for Igdlugdlip and
Nunatakavsaup sermia, Steenstrup, Kong Oscar, Peary, DLcker Smith, and Gades glaciers, and probably all glaciers flowing
from the high-accumulation northwestern belt. The fastest glacier, Kong Oscar, accelerated by 12% in 1996 to 2000 and
none in 2000 to 2005 (Fig. 2O). Overall, flow acceleration north of 70-N is subdued or absent compared to that in the south.
The largely negative mass balance of the northwest sector, however, which is consistent with its observed dynamic thinning
(1, 2), suggests that the glaciers were already flowing above balance conditions in 1996. Comparison of the 2000 ice-front
velocities with those measured in 1957/58 to 1964 in areas 20 to 23 (18) shows no detectable change in speed at the 10%
level. If ice dynamics is the cause of thinning, glacier acceleration took place before 1957, and the year 2000 glacier losses
have prevailed for many decades.
Glacier losses caused by ice dynamics alone are summarized in Table 1 for north, east, and west Greenland. The largest
contributions are from southeast and northwest Greenland in 1996 to 2000, with the addition of central east and west in 2000
to 2005 because of the acceleration of only three large glaciers. These estimates do not include glaciers draining from local
ice caps, southwest Greenland glaciers, and small eastern glaciers south of StorstrLmmen with low levels of ice discharge.
To obtain the total ice sheet loss, we need to combine the calculated losses from ice dynamics in Table 1 with deviations in
surface mass balance from the long-term average calculated elsewhere. Climate warming in the last decade has enhanced
surface melt and slightly increased snow precipitation to reduce the surface mass balance compared to the 1960 to 1990
average by an estimated 35 km3 ice/year in 1996 and 46 km3 ice/year in 2000 (19), which we linearly extrapolate to 57 km3
ice/year in 2005. Total ice sheet loss, combining dynamic losses and deviations from a zero-anomaly surface mass balance,
is then 91 T 31 km3 ice/year in 1996, 138 T 31 km3 ice/year in 2000, and 224 T 41 km3 ice/year in 2005.
Greenland’s mass loss therefore doubled in the last decade, well beyond error bounds. Its contribution to sea-level rise
increased from 0.23 T 0.08 mm/year in 1996 to 0.57 T 0.1 mm/year in 2005. Two-thirds of the loss is caused by ice
dynamics; the rest is due to enhanced runoff minus accumulation. Ice dynamics therefore dominates the contribution to sealevel rise from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Glacier acceleration in the east probably resulted from climate warming.
Temperature records at Angmassalik (65.6-N, 37.6-E) show a þ3-C increase in yearly air temperature from1981–1983 to
2003–2005. The processes that control the timing and magnitude of glacier changes are, however, not completely
characterized and understood at present. Glacier accelerations have been related to enhanced surface meltwater production
penetrating to the bed to lubricate its motion (20), and ice-shelf removal (13), ice-front retreat, and glacier ungrounding (21,
22) that reduce resistance to flow. The magnitude of the glacier response to changes in air temperature (surface melting) and
ocean temperature (submarine melting at calving faces) also depends on the glacier-bed properties, geometry, and depth
below sea level and the characteristics of the subglacial and englacial water-storage systems (3, 20). Current models used to
project the contribution to sea level from the Greenland Ice Sheet in a changing climate do not include such physical
processes and hence do not account for the effect of glacier dynamics. As such, they only provide lower limits to the
potential contribution of Greenland to sea-level rise. If more glaciers accelerate farther north, especially along the west coast,
the mass loss from Greenland will continue to increase well above predictions.
References and Notes:
1. W. Krabill et al., Science 289, 428 (2000).
2. W. Abdalati et al., J. Geophys. Res. 106, 33279 (2001).
3. W. Krabill et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 31, L24402 (2004).
4. The methodology used to map ice velocity has been developed in the 1990s with ERS-1/2 interferometric phase in north Greenland [e.g., (5, 23)], augmented
with speckle tracking data from Radarsat-1 in the 2000s (24) during the background mission of the second Antarctic mapping (25), which we also applied to 35day repeat ERS-1 data.
5. E. Rignot, S. Gogineni, W. Krabill, S. Ekholm, Science 276, 934 (1997).
6. P. Gogineni, T. Chuah, C. Allen, K. Jezek, R. Moore et al.,J. Glaciol. 44, 659 (1998).
7. Snow accumulation averaged for the period 1960 to 1990 is from (12). Surface melt is from a degree day model parameterized with 1960s temperatures (23),
which should represent average conditions in 1960 to 1990. These models yield 265 T 26 km3 ice/year runoff and 573 T 50 km3 ice/year accumulation for the
1.7-million-km2 ice sheet, consistent with published estimates.
8. A. Luckman, T. Murray, Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L08501 (2005).
9. R. Krimmel, B. Vaughn, J. Geophys. Res. 92, 8961 (1987).
10. O. Olesen, N. Reeh, Grønlands Geologiske Undersogelse Rep. 21, 41 (1969).
11. R. Thomas et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 27, 1291 (2000).
12. E. Rignot, D. Braaten, S. Gogineni, W. Krabill, J. McConnell, Geophys. Res. Lett. 31, L10401 (2004).
13. I. Joughin, W. Abdalati, M. Fahnestock, Nature 432, 608 (2004).
51
14. A. Weidick, N. Mikkelsen, C. Mayer, S. Podlech, Geol. Surv. Denm. Greenl. Bull. 4, 85 (2003).
15. R. Thomas et al., J. Glaciol. 49, 231 (2003).
16. T. Clarke, K. Echelmeyer, J. Glaciol. 42, 219 (1996).
17. A. Weidick in, Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World, U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap. 1386C, C1 (1995).
18. M. Carbonnell, A. Bauer, ‘‘Exploitation des couvertures photographiques ae´riennes re´pe´ te´es du front des glaciers veˆ lant dans Disko Bugt et Umanak
Fjord, Juin-Juillet 1964’’ (Meddelelser om Grønland, Rep. 173, no. 5, 1968).
19. E. Hanna et al., J. Geophys. Res. 110, D13108 (2004).
20. H. J. Zwally et al., Science 297, 218 (2002).
21. R. Thomas, J. Glaciol. 50, 57 (2004).
22. I. Howat, I. Joughin, S. Tulaczyk, S. Gogineni, Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L22502 (2005).
23. E. Rignot, W. Krabill, S. Gogineni, I. Joughin, J. Geophys. Res. 106, 34007 (2001).
24. R. Michel, E. Rignot, J. Glaciol. 45, 93 (1999).
25. K. Jezek, R. Carande, K. Farness, N. Labelle-Hamer, X. Wu, Radio Sci. 38, 8067 (2003).
26. We thank the numerous people involved with airborne campaigns in Greenland and two anonymous reviewers for their comments. This work was performed
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, under a contract with NASA’s
Cryospheric Science Program. Satellite radar data were provided by the European and Canadian Space Agencies and distributed by the Alaska Satellite Facility.
The development of ice thickness was partially supported by the NSF under grant OPP-0122520 to the University of Kansas.
Higher surface mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet revealed by highresolution climate modeling
Janneke Ettema, Michiel R. van den Broeke, Erik vanMeijgaard, WillemJan van de Berg, Jonathan L.
Bamber, Jason E. Box, and Roger C. Bales
Received 10 March 2009; revised 9 April 2009; accepted 13 May 2009; published 16 June 2009.
[1] High-resolution (11 km) regional climate modeling shows total annual precipitation on the Greenland ice
sheet for 1958–2007 to be up to 24% and surface mass balance up to 63% higher than previously thought. The
largest differences occur in coastal southeast Greenland, where the much higher resolution facilitates capturing
snow accumulation peaks that past five-fold coarser resolution regional climate models missed. The surface
mass balance trend over the full 1958–2007 period reveals the classic pattern expected in a warming climate,
with increased snowfall in the interior and enhanced runoff from the marginal ablation zone. In the period 1990–
2007, total runoff increased significantly, 3% per year. The absolute increase in runoff is especially pronounced
in the southeast, where several outlet glaciers have recently accelerated. This detailed knowledge of Greenland’s
surface mass balance provides the foundation for estimating and predicting the overall mass balance and
freshwater discharge of the ice sheet. Citation: Ettema, J., M. R. van den Broeke, E. van Meijgaard, W. J. van de Berg, J.
L. Bamber, J. E. Box, and R. C. Bales (2009), Higher surface mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet revealed by
highresolution climate modeling, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L12501, doi:10.1029/2009GL038110.
1. Introduction
[2] With a potential sea level rise of 7.3 m, the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is the largest reservoir of freshwater
in the Northern Hemisphere [Bamber et al., 2001]. It is virtually certain that the GrIS is currently loosing mass,
but the rate at which this happens remains poorly resolved. Recent estimates based on gravimetry [Ramillien et
al., 2006; Velicogna and Wahr, 2006; Chen et al., 2006; Lutchke et al., 2006; Wouters et al., 2008], radar/laser
altimetry [Krabill et al., 2004; Zwally et al., 2005; Slobbe et al., 2008] and radar interferometry combined with
climate modelling [Rignot and Kanagaratnam, 2006; Rignot et al., 2008a] range from 75–267 Gt yr_1 [Shepherd
and Wingham, 2007]. This is equivalent to a global average sea level rise of 0.21–0.74 mm yr_1, which is a
significant fraction of the estimated total sea level rise of 3.1 ± 0.7 mm yr _1 during 1993–2005 [Bindoff et al.,
2007].
[3] To better quantify and predict the mass balance and freshwater discharge of the GrIS requires improved
knowledge of its surface mass balance (SMB), the annual sum of mass accumulation (snowfall, rain) and
ablation (sublimation, runoff). Quantifying the SMB of the GrIS is a challenging task, because multiple
interacting processes are active that are highly variable in space and time, like rain and snowfall. Melt and
runoff increase exponentially towards the ice sheet margin, resulting in a narrow ablation zone of less than 1 to
150 km wide [van den Broeke et al., 2008].
[4] The complexity of the processes involved in combination with the steep coastal topography dictates the use
of high-resolution climate models to simulate the GrIS SMB. Global atmospheric models do not yet have the
resolution required to resolve the narrow GrIS ablation zone, and statistical downscaling techniques must be
applied to their output to quantify ablation in Greenland [Hanna et al., 2008]. A viable alternative, and the
approach followed here, is the use of dynamical downscaling with regional climate models (RCM) at high
horizontal resolution, forced at the boundaries by global models.
52
2. Methods
[5] For this work, the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO2/GR) [van Meijgaard et al., 2008] was
applied over a domain that includes the GrIS and its surrounding oceans and islands at unprecedented high
horizontal resolution (_11 km). Previously, RACMO2 has been successful in simulating accumulation in
Antarctica [van de Berg et al., 2006], resulting in a basin-by-basin mass balance state of the Antarctic ice sheet
[Rignot et al., 2008b]. For use over Greenland, RACMO2 has been coupled to a physical snow model that treats
surface albedo as function of snow/firn/ice properties, meltwater percolation, retention and refreezing
[Bougamont et al., 2005].
[6] The atmospheric part of the model is forced at the lateral boundaries and the sea surface by the global model
of the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium- Range Weather Forecasts). The model simulation covers the
period September 1957 to September 2008. For the model period up to August 2002, data of the ERA-40 reanalysis were used [Uppala et al., 2005] and ECMWF operational analyses after that. A more detailed
description of RACMO2/GR and the snow model is given in the auxiliary material.1
3. Precipitation
[7] The total modelled precipitation on the GrIS (1958– 2007 average) is 743 Gt yr _1 (434 kg m_2 yr_1), 7 to 24%
more mass than recent model-based estimates (Table S1). This is mainly due to the more detailed representation
of the topography; comparing one-year simulations of RACMO2/ GR and other RCM’s at various resolutions
reveals a direct relation between the grid cell area and the total precipitation over the GrIS (Figure S3). When
total accumulation (precipitation minus sublimation) is compared to compilations based solely on in situ
observations (_510 Gt yr_1), the difference increases to 40% [Ohmura et al., 1999; Cogley, 2004; Bales et al.,
2009].
[8] Ninety-four percent of the precipitation on the GrIS falls as snow and 6% as rain. The 1958–2007 map of
modelled average annual precipitation (Figure 1a) agrees very well with observations made at 20 Danish
Meteorological Institute stations around the coastal periphery of Greenland (r = 0.9, Figure S2a). As a result of
its high resolution, the map reveals numerous previously unidentified patterns, while refining others. A belt of
high accumulation is found along the coast of southeast Greenland between 60_N and 68_N. Here, the Icelandic
Low advects moist oceanic air westward towards the GrIS, where it rises steeply from sea level to 2.5 km
height. On northeast facing slopes, snowfall locally peaks at over 4000 kg m_2 yr_1, up to 60% higher than
values resolved previously [Box et al., 2006; Fettweis, 2007; Hanna et al., 2008].
[9] A broad region of enhanced snowfall is also found over the western ice sheet, a result of low-pressure
systems that migrate northwards along the west coast [Scorer, 1988]. Southward-facing accumulation maxima
are found in places where the GrIS topography protrudes westward. These snowfall maxima are co-located with
53
large and active (calving) glaciers, such as Frederiksha°b Isblink, Jacobshavn Isbræ and Rink Isbræ, as well as
with peripheral ice caps, e.g., Sukkertoppen at _66_N. Note the strong leeward drying to the north of
Sukkertoppen, which inhibits the formation of an ice cover over the tundra between 66_N and 69_N. Along the
northern ice sheet margin, local snowfall maxima (>500 kg m_2 yr_1) also coincide with the presence of
peripheral ice caps and large outlet glaciers (e.g., Petermann Glacier). A large dry interior region with snowfall
<200 kg m_2 yr_1 extends from the main ice divide all the way to the northern and north-eastern extremities of
the GrIS.
4. Ablation
[10] Ablation on the GrIS is dominated by runoff (90%) over evaporation/sublimation (10%). The modelled total
amount of liquid water available for runoff (melt and rain) is 450 Gt yr_1 (1958–2007 average), midway between
recently reported values (249 to 580 Gt yr _1 [Box et al., 2006; Fettweis, 2007; Hanna et al., 2008] (Table S1).
The large difference between these estimates derives mainly from elevations above 2,000 m asl, where most of
the meltwater refreezes in the high-melt models. As a result, the range of reported total runoff values is smaller
(232 to 307 Gt yr_1); RACMO2/GR calculates an average runoff flux of 248 Gt yr _1. This means that 45% of the
available water is refrozen, significantly more than predicted by offline refreezing models (Table S1).
[11] Modelled annual runoff (average 1958–2007) is shown in Figure 1b. On higher elevations, all meltwater
refreezes in the cold (winter) snowpack, and runoff is limited to a narrow zone along the ice sheet margin. Most
runoff originates from the south-western regions, with values locally peaking at >3500 kg m_2 yr_1 ,
corresponding to _4 m of annual ice melt. Secondary runoff maxima (1000 to 1500 kg m_2 yr_1) are found along
the northern margins of the ice sheet.
[12] In the wet southeast and northwest, runoff is significantly smaller than in the dry west and northeast,
because snowfall and runoff are negatively coupled through surface albedo: the albedo of glacier ice (_0.55) is
lower than that of clean snow (0.70–0.85 [Stroeve et al., 2005]). In dry sunny regions, the shallow winter snow
layer melts away quickly in spring, revealing the darker ice surface, which promotes radiation-driven ablation
and runoff in the subsequent summer. In wet and cloudy regions, the thick winter snowpack takes longer to
melt, while frequent summer snowfalls keep the surface albedo high, further reducing melt. Fresh snow also
retains more meltwater through capillary forces, enabling winter refreezing (internal accumulation) and further
reducing runoff.
5. Surface Mass Balance
[13] Subtracting total runoff (248 Gt yr _1) and evaporation/ sublimation (26 Gt yr _1) from total snowfall (697 Gt
yr_1) and rainfall (46 Gt yr _1) yields a total ice sheet SMB of 469 ± 41 Gt yr_1 (annual average for 1958–2007).
This value is 32 to 63% larger than recent model based estimates for the same period (Table S1). The
uncertainty of _9% is based on the differences between model and observations (see auxiliary material).
[14] Figure 1c shows annual average SMB (1958–2007), including 500 independent in-situ SMB observations
from a variety of published and unpublished sources [Reeh, 1991, 2008; Bales et al., 2009; Cogley, 2004; van de
Wal et al., 2005]. Although some observations date back to before 1958 and/or represent only a single year of
54
accumulation, qualitative agreement is good. If a stricter selection is made based on matching time periods and
elevation, 265 observations remain for which very good agreement is found with modelled SMB (r = 0.95,
Figure S2b).
[15] The accumulation zone (SMB > 0) covers 90% of
the ice sheet surface. The highest accumulation values
(>4000 kg m_2 yr_1) are found below 2000 m asl in
southeast Greenland, significantly more than
precipitation measured at nearby coastal stations (_2500
kg m_2 yr_1), affected less by terrain enhancement of
precipitation. The existence of this high accumulation
band is confirmed by the few available observations
from this region (Figure S2c).
[16] The modelled ablation zone (SMB < 0) covers only
10% of the ice sheet surface and locally exhibits very
strong SMB gradients. The ablation zone is up to 150
km wide in the dry southwest and northeast, and
narrower than a single model gridpoint (_11 km) in the
wet southeast and extreme northwest. The few available
SMB observations from the ablation zone range from
_1350 kg m_2 yr_1 on Storstrømmen in the northeast
[Bøggild et al., 1994] to <_3500 kg m_2 yr_1 along the
K-transect in the southwest [van de Wal et al., 2005,
2008]. These are in good agreement with the map,
although the width of the ablation zone in the southwest
is overestimated by _20 km and the SMB gradient is
underestimated in the lower ablation zone (Figure S2d).
[17] Total SMB could be revised _30 Gt yr_1 downwards when snowdrift sublimation is taken into account [Box
et al., 2006]. The good agreement with in situ observations, however, supports the conclusion that accumulation
on the GrIS is significantly greater than previously thought. Compared to previous SMB compilations, the
difference derives mostly from the high accumulation zone in southeast Greenland, similar to what was found
for coastal west Antarctica and the western Antarctic Peninsula [van den Broeke et al., 2006]. High
accumulation zones are systematically under-sampled in observational data sets and underestimated in lowerresolution models, leading to lower ice sheet totals. Coastal high-accumulation zones are nonetheless very
important for the ice sheet mass balance: with an equilibrium line altitude close to sea level, outlet glaciers are
able to develop floating ice tongues and ice shelves which are sensitive to ambient changes in atmosphere and
ocean. Clearly, more SMB observations from this important region are needed.
6. Time Series and Trends
[18] Figure 2 presents time series (1957–2008) of precipitation (PR), melt (ME), runoff (RU) and SMB
cumulated over the hydrological year (1 September to 31 August the following year). The interannual variability
in SMB is very large (s = 107 Gt yr _1), a direct result of the large variability and out-of-phase relationship of its
main components, precipitation (s = 78 Gt yr_1) and runoff (s = 67 Gt yr_1). The interannual variability in
evaporation/sublimation is much smaller (s = 3 Gt yr_1). Year-to-year variations in SMB can be extreme, e.g., a
250% increase from 1995 to 1996.
[19] If the full period 1957–2008 is considered, only total sublimation (0.11 ± 0.02 Gt yr _2) and runoff (2.6 ± 0.5
Gt yr_2) indicate significant positive trends. For SMB (Figure 3), the classic trend pattern that is expected in a
warmer climate is evident, with increased snowfall in the interior, where increased temperatures are still below
freezing, and enhanced runoff from the ablation zone.
[20] Before 1990, none of the mass balance components indicates a significant trend. Since 1990, temperatures
have increased significantly over Greenland [Hanna et al., 2008], resulting in a 3% per year steady increase in
melt and runoff, which have clearly moved outside the range of pre- 1990 variability. The effect of the pinatubo
in 1991 has no impact on this trend. The 1990–2008 melt increase (13 ± 3 Gtyr_2) induced a similar change in
runoff (10 ± 2 Gt yr _2) and a decrease in SMB (_12 ± 4 Gt yr _2). In the same period, the rain fraction increased
from 6.2% before 1990 to 8.5% in 2007 (0.13 ± 0.06% yr _1).
55
[21] The recent increase in runoff is especially large in southeast Greenland. In combination with warm ocean
currents [Holland et al., 2008; Hanna et al., 2009], the increase of superficial melting may have triggered the
acceleration of outlet glaciers in this region through meltinduced thinning and ungrounding [Stearns and
Hamilton, 2007; Rignot et al., 2008a; Howat et al., 2008].
[22] Through the albedo effect, the low winter accumulation in 2006–2007 combined with abnormally high
nearsurface air temperatures led to record melting in the summer of 2007, culminating in the lowest SMB value
(178 Gt yr _1) since 1958. The relatively cold 2006–2007 winter enhanced springtime refreezing, limiting 2007
runoff to a value below the 2003 record. Increased winter accumulation led to a modest recovery of surface
mass balance in 2008.
7. Conclusions
[23] Our findings show that considerably more mass accumulates on the GrIS than previously thought, adjusting
upwards earlier estimates by as much as 63%. The higher resolution, the used ice sheet mask and the redundant
need for post-calibration could be a cause for disagreement between models. Since 1990, the GrIS SMB has
decreased rapidly, mainly caused by increased melting and runoff. When combined with ice discharge estimates
[Rignot et al., 2008a], this new SMB field can be used to assess the basinby- basin mass balance of the GrIS.
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