9 July 2012 Geography, Ice Sheet Hydrology and Google Earth with the help of Asa Rennermalm

Summary - More updates to come!

Asa Rennermalm of Rutgers University is spending the day with the students discussing and doing her research. This morning she is explaining her research to the students and this afternoon we will go out to Point 660 and check some of her experiments plus students will take flow rate measurements of their own. Students got to drill into the ice and set one of her poles to measure how much the ice has melted.

Pictures!

Group Assignments for Today

• Group 1: Flow Rate Data
• Group 2: Find and identify Rocks
• Group 3: Video documentation of todays activities
• Group 4: Weather Measurements
• Group 5: Plant collections and identifications

Group 1 Flow Rate Measurement Report

Flow Rate measurements

Group 3 Video Interview of Asa about her work and Discharge at Point 660

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Group 4 Weather - Point 660

• Windspeed: max 10 m/s, average: 8.2 m/s
• Temp: 6.3C
• Humidity: 47%
• Wind Chill: 1.5C
• Absolute humidity: 5.5 g/m3
• Dew Point: 1.8C

Student Blogs

Sasha Sethsen (Grl)

My name is Sasha Kleist Sethsen, I am seventeen years old, from HTX Sisimiut but currently living in Uummannaq. And I will be writing todays blog! Today we had the overall theme about Glacial discharge, and for that we had a lecture about discharge and temperatures, by Åsa Rennermalm, Rutgers University. We also had a lecture about putting data measurements on Excel. Afterwards we went to nearby Russel GlacierA mass of ice that persists for many years and notably deforms and flows under the influence of gravity. to measure discharge of the river from icesheet, to determine the speed of melting of the ice sheet. After that, we took a long bustoure near the ice sheet, because we were going drill into an ice on ice sheet, to observe the melting on ice. It was about 30 minutes of walk to reach the drilling spot. Åsa had recently drilled a hole into the icesheet, to put a bamboo, a long stick, because it was one of the best method to measure the melting. Last month, the bamboo that she had put, had melted over 2 meters. She showed us a picture of it. It was interesting, what the global warming had affected the ice sheet. The long cold walk, made me feel lika a real scientist. Fighting for something I want to know, whatever the consequences were. The best experience of the day, was drilling into the ice ! It gave me so much warmth in the middle of “coldwhere”(somewhere cold). Which you can see on the photo. I also called my mother in Uummannaq and my grandfather from Kangaatsiaq (village in Maanitsoq), because apparently there was a connection! They sounded proud of me. I was even more proud of myself to have chosen to join the Science Field School. It was one of my best choices. I hope I can remember all the facts I have been exposed for, for my education. And to develop myself.

Fie Thorup Hansen (Denmark)

Hi all y’all, my name is Fie Thorup Hansen and I’m 19 years old. I live in a sleepy town called Korup in a city named Odense in a country known as Denmark. I am a 3rd year student to be at the Danish “gymnasium” Odense Katedralskole. My main subjects are social studies, geography and math, and French is my elective. Most of my spare time I spent in the stables with my horse, a Danish warm blood called Farina. I love her very much. I also enjoy hanging out with my friends in Odense, and just being with my family at home.

I have really enjoyed these days in Kangerlussuaq at the field school we have so much fun and experience so many cool things. Today we spent the day with the Swedish scientist Åsa, starting out at 8 o’clock with a presentation of her research which main focus is the hydrology of the Greenlandic ice sheet. The presentation was followed by some group work focusing on making sense out of actual meteorological data from stations around the entire country.

After lunch we went out in the field to measure both the water discharge in a river and to check on one of her ablation stakes on the ice sheet (a piece of bamboo sticking out of the ice).
We measured the discharge manually with really awesome instruments of Åsa’s, an almost frictionless propeller to stick in the water, connected with fancy handheld instruments. We also measured the velocity of the water with our own instruments to compare, and the results were actually not too far off, even though our equipment was not quite as nifty.

We headed towards the ice at point 660 where we have been before, and then we took a hike with Åsa off to her bamboo stick. It was an amazing hike the ice landscape was so different from what we have seen of Greenland so far and extremely fascinating. We reached the bamboo stick, and when Åsa had finished he measurements we helped her drilling another hole for a new bamboo stick which was pretty awesome.

I also think it is important to mention that I have done my very best to teach the American girls the beauty of the Danish language and culture, something they all seem to appreciate very much. To wrap it all up I’m making following statement: Sydney forhelved, you’re crazy!