 To the Summit Station, Greenland!
June 2007
Summit Station is in the very center of the Greenland ice cap, the largest expanse of ice in the northern hemisphere. Around the coast, some of what were already the fastest-moving glaciers in the world have been picking up pace in the past decade. Teams of researchers including Koni Steffen, Ginny Catania and Don Voigt (working with PPZA Traveler Sridhar Anandakrishnan) were on the ground in early 2007 using a wide array of instruments to find out the latest, and what implications there might be for global sea-level rise. Meanwhile, in the heart of Earth's largest island, at the highest point in the Arctic, other researchers are studying snow to better calibrate the ice core data that underlies many climate change predictions, and others are studying atmospheric gases and how they interact with ice and snow. Some, like Jack Dibb, say - emphatically - that snow is far from a blank, white “nothing”: instead it's an active player in global processes. Getting to Greenland is an adventure in itself. In the first of mini-series of podcasts - edited on laptops in the field, after camping out in tents at minus 40 temperatures! - join Mary Albert, Jeff Severinghaus and a team of students and drillers as they travel from America to Kangerlusssuaq, Greenland. With them is PolarTREC teacher, Jo Dodds, who hosted live webinars on May 2 and June 1. Check the PolarTREC website for the archive. Tour Summit Station with camp manager Kathy Young, and see the teamwork it takes to support science in such extreme conditions. Check out Dibb's snow photochemistry experiment in the two-part "Captain Jack and the Halogen Hunters." And stay tuned "Going GREEN in Greenland", and a look at research on the Jakobshavn Glacier, the fastest-moving glacier in the world.
 Click the Podcast button to the right for the latest video clips.
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