Ice core research is one of the key research areas of the Ice2ice project. A great number of scientists from the ice2ice project are this summer participating in the drilling of a new ice core.  This ice core, the EastGRIP core is expected to contribute to the understanding of ice streams and their role in future sea level rise. 

By: Anne-Katrine Faber, Kerim Nisanciouglu and Helle Astrid Kjær

Surrounded by nothing but snow and ice, the ice core drilling camp EastGRIP is located in the northeastern interior of the Greenland ice sheet. Here up to 35 people work towards the same goal, to drill and analyze the EastGRIP ice core.

The ice cores are drilled and analyzed in trenches, “the ice caves”, and approx. 7 meters below the snow surface. Here, far away from the sunlight, the ice caves function as a natural freezer and creates perfect conditions for drilling, logging, cutting and analyzing ice cores.

The entrance to the ice core trenches (Picture: Kerim Nisanciouglu)

EastGRIP is located on top of more than 2,5 km of ice. The ice core is not drilled as one single long core from surface to bottom, but consist of a large number of 2-meter core sections. In order to keep track of the depth of all of these ice core pieces, logging of the ice cores are crucial.  Helle Astrid Kjær is one of the ice core loggers from the ice2ice project this year.

Each time the ice core drillers have drilled a new ice core section, the ice core loggers take over and make sure that the ice core sections are well matched and logged. Helle Astrid Kjær explains:

“Each 2 meter ice core section has to be matched well with the previous ice core. This way we know the total depth as well as orientation of each ice core section. The length of the new piece is to be very accurately recorded. Further we mark 55 cm sections, each 55 cm section is called an ice core bag and gets a number, before storing the core in the core buffer. The core is cut prior to storage into 3 bags length (1.65 m) and rest until the science trench takes over the processing”’

 Ice2ice Helle Kjær and Korean colleague Khangyuan pointing towards bag 1000, which was logged, the in the end of June: (Photo: Helle Astrid Kjær)

When the ice core is logged, the next task is to cut and process the core. This is done in the “Science trench”. Kerim Nisanciouglu & Sarah Berben spent most of their time underground in the Science trench of EastGRIP with a great team of colleagues from Denmark, Italy and China processing the ice cores. This included, cutting, describing, cleaning, measuring and packing the 400 meters of ice extracted this season as well as the firn core extracted from the surface in 2016.

Kerim Nisanciouglus main task was measuring Electrical Conductivity (ECM) on a clean surface of the archive piece before packing.  “During the weeks we found multiple volcanic events including notable ones such as Laki, Tambora and Krakatoa. We also tried to follow historical events and music (!) from the period we processed. The latter proved to be hard once we passed 1200AD, but it was a great journey through time with lots of fun discussions throughout the climate record.”

Kerim in the Science Trench showing ECM measurements (Picture: Kerim Nisanciouglu)

Sarah Berben took care of another important study of volcanic events, the processing of the core for Tephra measurements. These measurements allow is to study ash particles from volcanic events located in the ice core.  Later, comparison of ice cores and ocean sediments cores creates possibilities for synchronization of the two different types of climate archives.

The team of Kerim and Sarah processed a record 70 bags during one day (!) and managed to finish processing down to about 400 m several days before time. Below this point the ice started to become more fragile as we approached the brittle zone and it was decided to sore and let the remaining ice rest before processing next year.

The processing team of Kerim and Sarah celebrating their achievements in the Science Trench (Picture: Kerim Nisanciouglu)

Far away from the cold temperatures in the science trench, Anne-Katrine Faber were sampling snow from the surface. As part of the surface science project, she contributed to the ongoing work of understanding how the water isotopes in the snow and air are interacting.  This including daily measurements of snow at different depth, snow height measurements in the “bamboo forest” and monitoring of the isotopic composition of the water vapor in the atmosphere at different heights above the snow surface.

Anne-Katrine digging holes for snow pack measurements and transporting the samples back using skis and a sled.  (Photo: Anne-Katrine Faber)

Whether you normally work with ocean, atmosphere or ice is not relevant when you are at EastGRIP. Everybody works towards the same common goal, to drill and analyze an ice core.  During this work, scientific discussions and collaborations happens spontaneous, probably as a result of the mix of modelers and experimentalist and their different research interests.

A view of inside of the Dome during dinner time (Picture: Anne-Katrine Faber)

Overall the Ice2Ice scientists that got the privilege to join EastGRIP this summer got a fieldwork experience that included scientific achievements, beneficial discussions and last but not least a great del of fun.

A view of the EastGRIP camp and the flag line showing the many different nations present in camp at the given time.  (Picture: Kerim Nisanciouglu)

Links for more information:

EastGRIP website: http://s.eastgrip.org/

Watch this video: https://vimeo.com/173730939

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EastGRIP/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/egripcamp/ or #EastGRIP and #EGRIP

Both positions are placed in Bergen, Norway at the Bjerknes centre for climate research.

One is focusing on developing a detailed chronology and synchronizing climatic time series between marine and ice core records through tephra studies, the other on climate dynamics and the interactions between the marine terminating ice caps, ocean circulation and Arctic sea ice.

Deadline for the application(s) is June 10th.

About the project/work tasks:

• The successful candidates will be part of the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (http://www.bjerknes.uib.no) and the ERC project ice2ice.
• The ice2ice project (Arctic Sea Ice and Greenland Ice Sheet Sensitivity) is an ERC funded synergy project jointly run by the University of Bergen, the University of Copenhagen (http://www.iceandclimate.nbi.ku.dk), UNI Research Climate (http://uni.no/en/uni-klima), and the Danish Meteorological Institute.
• The focus of ice2ice is to investigate the cause and future implications of past abrupt changes in Arctic sea ice and climate on the Greenland ice sheet.
• The PhD project will be designed based on the candidates background

Position 1

Ice2ice was well represented at this years European Geophysical meeting (EGU). 14,496 scientists from 107 countries participated in the meeting, of which 53% were early career scientists (under the age of 35 years).

Over the course of the 5 day long meeting, ice2ice contributed heavily with 4 sessions:

• Quaternary climate archives and proxy uncertainty (Nora and Hening)
• The state-of-the-art in ice coring sciences (co-organized) (Paul)
• Understanding, representing and communicating earth system processes in weather and climate (Jens)
• Decadal to millennial scale climate variability of the late Quaternary (Joel, Helle, Mari, Kerim, Markus, Ruth)

Besides the high number of sessions with ice2ice conveners, ice2ice contributed more than 20 talks and a similar number of posters. A close to full list of ice2ice contributions by day can be found here.

Further ice2ice was represented in the EGU cinema, where the movies created by ice2ice was each shown twice over the course of the week. You can watch the movies here in case you missed them at EGU.

Finally on wednesday a social was held for ice2ice people and friends. More than 50 people joined.

 

As part of a focus week on climate change at the danish national radio ice2ice researcher Ruth Mottram sat down and explained her 6 yr old kid Sofia about climate change and the consequences for Sofias future.

Similarly ice2ice Primary investigator had a talk with his nieces Siri and Marie, who are 9 and 11 years old.

See the conversations (in danish) here and here.

By ice2ice PhD Iben Koldtoft

The two-day Ice2Ice NEGIS workshop took place in end of March in Bergen city, Norway. The focus on the workshop was the North Eastern Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS); ice-ocean interactions in the past and the present.

We were 29 participants, with many new faces to the Ice2Ice network, from Norway, Denmark, Germany, the US, and UK. Both the cryosphere, atmosphere and ocean’s influence of the dynamic of the ice stream was discussed during the two days. NEGIS is a key player to understand the dynamic of the Greenland Ice Sheet, since is drains a large portion of the ice sheet, and its interaction with the surrounding ocean (e.g. fresh water fluxes) and atmosphere (e.g. surface mass balance), which all are important for the research questions of the Ice2Ice project.

The format of the workshop allowed the participants to present data, which provided a good basis for further discussion, where we both discussed the NEGIS in the past, but also the recent changes in the NEGIS region, both in the ocean, the atmosphere and for the ice itself.

The goal of the workshop was to find out what groups are doing of research at NEGIS and start collaboration. There was many opportunities for the first mentioned during the two days of presentations, while there was an opportunity to start collaboration up by latter during both days of walk-and-talk sessions in the nearby park.

The outcome of the workshop was that we will probably have a next NEGIS workshop in connection with Dorthe’s IceFlow project in Copenhagen. Here we will decide if we want to write a community paper with all of the questions that came out over the workshop. If you are an ice2ice collaborator you can find the questions in the summary of the workshop in the ice2ice dropbox folder.

by Ellen Viste from the Bjerkness centre

Thirteen people from the Bjerknes Centre and Ice2Ice partners participated in a safety course at Folgefonna 29–31 March. The goal was to prepare the crew that will work on the EastGRIP drilling station in northeastern Greenland the coming summers. Instructed by guides from Folgefonni breførarlag, the participants learned about glacier safety and safe travel in the mountains.

The course started with a nine-hour hike to Fonnabu (1450 m.a.s.l.), getting above the heavy fog just in time to see the sunset and the glacier. The next day, strong winds made the living-room the obvious place for practicing knots and pulleys. The weather later improved enough to allow more realistic rescue operations – not in a crevasse, but in a small slope behind the cabin. Anyone who have tried to drag people up a hill will know that this is by no means less strenuous. The last day was spent getting down from Fonnabu and at the shooting range in Jondal.

by Ben Kiesling

From March 13^th thru 17^th, #ice2ice researchers from Copenhagen and Bergen and a handful of guests from around the world convened in Myrkdalen, Norway, to discuss what the project has achieved to date and how to move forward. As an American PhD student visiting the University of Copenhagen, I was lucky enough to join the Annual Meeting and get a first-hand look at the groundbreaking science the Ice2Ice team is doing.

My first experience with Ice2Ice was in January 2017, when I joined a group of 15 other students at a the week-long ice2ice PhD Bootcamp. I spent that week together with four other PhD students working on ice velocity data from the floating ice tongue of 79ºN Glacier in Northeast Greenland. During the week in January, we were able to accomplish quite a lot, most importantly developing a flexible method for determining the stresses and strains in the floating ice tongue using different datasets. The Annual Meeting in Myrkdalen gave us a chance to get feedback from our mentors and peers and discuss a realistic timeline for moving forward with the project, both of which are invaluable as we work towards publishing our results.

Although I came to the Ice2Ice meeting to help present my work from the ice2ice PhD bootcamp, I ended up getting much more out of it than I anticipated. Highlights were hearing about ongoing work to understand how the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet has changed over the last 10,000 years, and to what extent these changes are linked to variations in sea ice. During plenary sessions at the Annual Meeting we discussed how the project has already begun to characterize how changes to the ice sheet and the sea ice affect atmospheric circulation and global climate. Continuing to study these processes is critical for improving our ability to forecast future climate change as Arctic ice cover, on land and in the ocean, continues to shrink. But for me, the most exciting discussions were “off-the-record.” Coffee breaks and afternoon pauses were a great time to catch up with Ice2Ice glaciologists and discuss wild ideas about the past history and future changes to the Greenland ice sheet. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say, I look forward to collaborating with scientists from Bergen and Copenhagen long after my visit to Europe ends.

A lot of time was spent talking science at the Annual Meeting, with discussions often spilling over into our shared mealtimes. But it would be a shame (and utterly non-Norwegian!) to travel to such a beautiful place and spend the entire week in a conference room. Our brains brimming with thoughts of Greenland and Dansgaard–Oeschger Events, many of us spent part of the afternoon hitting the slopes. Threatening low clouds and periodic rain would normally have kept me from skiing, but in my experience, it’s hard to spend any time in Norway without really wanting to be outside. And besides, as some of my colleagues liked to remind me, there’s no such thing as bad weather, you just need the right clothes!

by Ruth Mottram and Peter Langen

Glaciers in Greenland lose mass by melt and runoff, by calving and by submarine melt that happens at the front of outlet glaciers that terminate in the ocean. Submarine melt occurs because the ocean water is (relatively) warmer than the ice, but it goes much faster where there is turbulent water mixing the layers by the glacier. Probably the most important source of turbulence are plumes of water that emerge at the base of the glacier where it terminates in the fjord.  The water is generated by melting mostly at the surface though also at the bed of the glacier. Meltwater flows like rivers through systems of englacial channels to finally arrive at the bed where it makes its way, eventually, to the end of the glacier.

Unfortunately these channels are pretty hard to map, and there are lakes and areas at the bed where water can be stored. The plumes themselves are rather hazardous to observe as they are often inaccessible and in front of actively calving sections of the glacier. There have been a few studies, but often these are snapshots in time and it is difficult to assess how important these processes are to the overall mass budget of the ice sheet.

Therefore we have to turn to models to work out how important plume processes are for submarine melt. In our recent paper with Slater et al (2017), we contributed data from the HIRHAM5 RCM to look at runoff within a catchment in Greenland. The case study was based at Kangiata Nunata Sermia glacier, in the Godthåbsfjord area of south western Greenland. It’s a relatively accessible glacier showing many of the common processes for Greenland outlet glaciers and has a fair bit of data available. The Langen et al (2014) paper showed that HIRHAM5 performs pretty well in terms of modelled runoff in this region.

The modelled runoff was used in two different models of subglacial plumes, including one implemented in MITgcm, in order to determine what configuration of subglacial hydrology and plume distribution along the ice front was most likely.  The models were compared with a time lapse photos of the ice front showing plume activity at the surface.

For a large proportion of the summer, the modelled catchment runoff greatly exceeds the discharge required to create a plume that would reach the fjord surface, yet there are extended periods when there is no plume visible from the time lapse pictures. This can only be explained by the runoff emerging into the fjord in a spatially distributed fashion. In the paper we therefore argue that subglacial drainage near the glacier terminus is often spatially distributed, formed either from numerous point sources of subglacial discharge, or a single but very wide subglacial channel or possibly a complex combination of the two.

There are two implications from this work. Firstly, a more spatially distributed submarine plume gives a higher total melt than a single concentrated plume but this melt rate is still unable to explain the mass loss at the terminus when considering the ice velocity at the terminus, suggesting that calving is still the most important mass flux term at this glacier. Secondly, the modelling study found that the distributed hydrology, suggested by the results leads to a more direct ice flow response to high surface melt rates and this response most likely scales with catchment size.

Probably the most important result to come out of this study is that longer time series of observations of plumes, in combination with the modelled runoff lead to a dramatically different understanding of key processes within the fjords when compared to those suggested by simple snapshot observations in earlier studies.

The 11th of February was the UN international day of women and girls in science.

Both ice2ice postdoc Helle Astrid Kjær and DMI researcher Ruth Mottram has been very active tweeting about ice2ice activities (@H_A_Kjaer and @ruth_mottram) and have also used the #actuallivingscientist, which is used to describe what scientist actually work with. This was picked up by ScienceNordic, which is a news media for Nordic science. They used the two tweets from Helle and Ruth in their article on 11th of February celebrating UN international day of women and girls in science.

The full story can be found in english here.

And in danish here.

Other active ice2ice tweeters are:

• Kerim Nisancioglu (@nissenjo )
• Lars H Smedsrud ‏(@islarsh)
• Eliza Cook (@ElizaCook22)
• Ben Kiesling(@palaeoben)

 

 

The Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen has a very nice 2 page article on the ice2ice project. The interview with Principal Investigator Eystein Jansen focusing on abrupt changes in the Arctic climate.

Project partners can find the full text in the ice2ice dropboc