Snow isn’t exactly welcome on this Arctic expedition.
Last week, Martyn Tranter, Ate Jaarsma, Shunan Feng, and Lasse Twiggs Degn set off on their summer fieldwork – the first of 20 who will make the journey this season. Traveling up to the north of Greenland with a portable research base is no mean feat – they must transfer 10 tons of equipment by barge, and helicopter to set up camp on the ice. It’s not just laboratory facilities either - sleeping quarters, toilets, a kitchen, and power sources need to be in place to support the altogether two-month long stay on the ice.
But setting up camp in the wrong place could be disastrous. Snow in this case can dangerously conceal deep crevasses in the ice, which can quickly grow with glacier movement. Finding snow on arrival means that the team have been on standby in Ilulissat for a few days, and are in good spirits while they wait for an improvement in conditions so they can set up camp safely. If this drone footage captured by Shunan Feng is anything to go by, then at least it’s not a bad place to wait!
Once the camp is established, the group will start their investigations, collecting data and studying the biology and chemistry of the glacier surface, and how this can affect the darkening and melting of the ice as part of the Deep Purple project. Read more about Deep Purple on the project website here: https://lnkd.in/eAtYzHvc and follow them on Instagram for some more insights from the team https://lnkd.in/ejx8Xbup. Deep Purple is funded by the European Research Council (ERC).
The original post can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/envs-au_drifting-through-ilulissat-no-audio-activity-6949626298927333376-_TRT