By Rey Mourot
Hi all! Rey here. I'm the youngest member of the Greenland 2020 team - as my supervisor would say, I'm "the team baby". As a short introduction, I am a future PhD student in Liane's team at the GFZ, and I am the "ice corer" of the Deep Purple team. I will study the organization and composition of microbial communities minerals in the columns of ice, with a special focus on the snow - ice transition - that's where everything happens! I already had (and will have) many "first times" during this expedition! First time in Greenland, first time seeing all kinds of new species of plants and birds, trying new food... But on Friday, June 27 was my first time flying in an helicopter. You should certainly read Martyn's post about our arrival in Narsarsuaq. On our first day here Liane, Martyn and myself had a first look IRL at the ice sheet section we were interested in for setting up our camp. Following many discussion with Jason Box, who will accompany the Deep Purple team for the first part of our Summer 2020 field season, we explored and selected a good camp site. We left the first part of our cargo on the ice, so that we can set the camp fast once our real adventure begins, when the Aarhus team - Eva, Laura, Alex, Lasse, and Jason will join us tomorrow.
Before flying, in the morning, after hesitation and delays due to low clouds covering the mountains, we received the OK call from Pilu, our helicopter pilot and fixer, that he will come to pick us up in Narsarsuaq airport, direction: the ice sheet! The helicopter was already packed full with Zarges boxes and bags for our field camp.
Fig 1. My 1st helicopter experience
As the clouds disappeared, this first flight in the helicopter was crazily beautiful. The surroundings of Narsarsuaq is full of mountains of all sizes, some covered by green mosses and some species of flowers I still need to investigate. The melted snow forms diverse ponds of translucent water reflecting the sun.
Fig 2. My 1st iceberg landscapes
As we flew by I saw my first real icebergs (another first time!, my previous icebergs sightings were on a glacial river in Iceland), small farms, sheep... and finally, the massive ice sheet. Even if it appears bright white on the distance, as we got closer it became clear that the surface was actually pretty dark due to a ton of dark particles (minerals and algae) that we can see from the helicopter.
Fig 3. Dark ice surface next to Nunatak
We asked Pilu about how the ice sheet melted during the past years, and he estimated a retreat of more than 15 meters a year in some places. Even on a marvellous trip like this one, climate change is frightening...
As we finally approached our intended camp site area, Pilu had to try to land at different places.
There was still plenty of snow (and visible red snow algae) on the ground and we had to land a bit lower to find a perfect spot, but here it is.
For a small insight on how we're choosing it, see below!
Smart criteria for a good camping site:
- on the bare ice: even if we chose a broad area with no big crevasses to set our camp, the snow is covering potential dangerous patches. So, safety first!
- not too far away from a small river, which we will use as drinking water source, water for doing the dishes... and all human functions that we still do, even during a science mission on an ice sheet.
- slightly elevated, so our tents can be kept safe from melted snow / slush avalanches
Science criteria for a good camping site:
- not too far from a promice.dk met station
- not too far from a Nunatak (rock promontory in the middle of the ice field) where Jason will install a rain gauge to monitor precipitations.
- not too far from the snow line so we can follow the melt and algal bloom progression and development but still be able to collect good transitional snow to ice samples
Over the 3 weeks of camping we will have to move our tents regularly anyway, to follow the snow line and find a new, safer, and less wet spot as the landscape is changing. We found the perfect spot, and even saw a beautiful patch of bright red snow algae on the way! Our camp will be at ~710m above sea level.
Once we arrived, we disembarked and remained on the ice in the brilliant sun and Pilu flaw back to Qakortoq to pick up the remaining boxes that were waiting for us since the spring - sent there for an April mission which I was supposed to be part of and that was supposed to be with Alex, Jason, and Masashi; alas Covid19 happened!
We were more than happy to stay for one hour and a half on the ice sheet under a bright sun and beautiful blue sky. Let me tell you, time goes fast when you can listen to Martyn and Liane talking about polar bear and research stories in such a cool landscape. As I'm in charge of the GoPro, I was glad to record some of the weird things the PIs could do to celebrate the finding of the-perfect-site!
Fig 4. PI’s being silly
We left our boxes on the ice, and they are waiting to be united with the remaining cargo tomorrow when we come back, this time with the full team...
After a final return flight …. over marvellous landscapes … my 1st ‘helo’ flight was over and we had a well-deserved beer after this successful day!