Not your typical classroom. Niskayuna High School Students Nate Weigman and Zack Wistort arrive at the North Eemian Ice Coring Station (NEEM) on the Greenland ice sheet courtesy of the 109th Air National Guard Airlift Wing. All photos: Paul Scott

Opportunity Of A Lifetime

When Niskayuna High School seniors Nate Wiegman and Zack Wistort traveled to Greenland last summer with their science teacher Paul Scott, they were guests of the National Science Foundation participating in Science in Education, an annual week-long field trip that brings together high school students and teachers from the U.S.A., Greenland, and Denmark to learn about arctic science in Greenland. They knew glaciers would be on the program, and they imagined they would rub shoulders with prominent climate scientists.

The Greenlandic, Danish, and American high school students launch a weather balloon to measure atmospheric ozone levels.

But they never expected to discover such deep, individual passions for earth sciences, to develop enduring friendships with peers from Greenland and Denmark, or to join mid-career geologists at one of their most important annual conferences and present two posters on the experience.

Applying The Lessons At Home

Both boys wrote their college admissions essays on their trip to Greenland, they keep in touch with their foreign friends via Skype, and this fall they traveled to Denver to the Geological Society of America conference in Denver to give the scientists in whose footsteps they hope to follow a glimpse about that life-changing week.

“To us, the whole point of it [SciEd week] was to take our experiences and bring them back to our communities and share what we learned,” said Zack.

Nate agreed: “It was an amazing experience being up there and I felt obligated to tell other people about it.”

The Danish and American students working on their blogs and reports for the Science Education Tour. (From left to right: Sofie Larsen, Charlotte Fabricius, Nate Wiegman, Zack Wistort).

Presenting Data to the Professionals

The boys built two compelling posters. The first is titled “Global Climate Change Studies on the Greenland Ice Sheet,” and it provides an overview of the research they observed and learned about as well as the water chemistry measurements they took using equipment they brought from New York.

Science…

The science poster is a snapshot of some of the forefront research being conducted in Greenland: cloud research operating out of Summit Station’s Mobile Science Facility; albedo measurements, measurements of black carbon, carbon dioxide, and other gases from the Temporary Atmospheric Watch Observatory (TAWO); nitrogen measurements from the FLUX facility; ice coring at the North Greenland Eemian Ice Coring Station (NEEM).

Inclement weather almost prevented the stop at NEEM, but at the last minute, the group was flown to the station where they had an hour to observe and explore. Both Nate and Zack made the most of their limited time.

“It was really hectic, but it was amazing to run in and experience the whole thing,” said Zach. “It’s incredible that they can tell so much about the climate from the drilling.”

…And Culture

Their second poster discussed the Greenland culture and Summit Station logistics. The two were captivated by the Greenlandic culture, which is vastly different from their own. Greenland is virtually roadless and the food includes reindeer. At home, cars—not dogsleds pulled by huskies—are standard and pizza, not narwhal, is what’s for dinner. Greenland traffic signs warn of big shaggy beasts blocking the roads.

Summit Station, the year-round NSF-supported research station located at 10,600 feet on the Greenland ice sheet, is a self-contained camp that supports myriad scientists. The boys said they “were impressed with the ingenuity and technology required to operate a research station in this unforgiving environment.” While there they learned how the station warms outhouses (painting them black), deals with snowdrifts and access to buildings (building them high above the ground), makes water (melting tons of snow with waste heat from the camp generator), and more.

The quality and attention to detail in both posters underscores the boys’ intellectual curiosity and powerful observations. Their pictures and accompanying text communicate the complicated science they learned about, the interesting place they visited, and the respect they obviously developed for their many hosts.

Students, Enthused

In conversation, the boys are well spoken and friendly, and their memories of Greenland are punctuated with superlatives. “It was so amazing!” “We are thrilled and excited to tell anyone we can about it.” “This was a great experience.”

Now, having crossed the GSA conference off their list, the boys are preparing to present their posters to their own school. Working with their teacher, Mr. Scott, they’re preparing to address the student body.

And in the meantime, they’re preparing to go to college next fall where they both profess an interest in pursuing some aspect of climate science.

A Proud Teacher

Their enthusiasm and drive doesn’t surprise Mr. Scott, who handpicked them for the SciEd trip.

“Zack and Nate are hard-working, curious, reliable, teachable, responsible, and intelligent,” said Mr. Scott. “I knew they were interested in science and felt this trip might confirm their future studies.”

Mr. Scott sums it up this way: “This trip was the single greatest thing they have done in their high school career. Because of this trip, they are ready to try anything.  It is great to see.”

And it wasn’t just Nate and Zack who benefited, he said.

“It was great for me too,” said Mr. Scott. “I love to see young people interested in the world, science, different cultures, and wanting to make an impact.  I am lucky to have students like this around.  It is what I most love about my job.” —Rachel Walker

Comments (1) Dec 06 2010

Testing Snow Strength

Two expeditions and thousands of miles on the Greenland ice sheet have provided valuable information to CH2M HILL Polar Services logisticians and engineers as they work to optimize an overland traverse to access NEEM and Summit stations by ground instead of air. During the most recent traverse (completed this spring), the traverse team tested the snow strength along the way, collecting data that will help the team understand why the Greenland Inland Traverse (GrIT) is not achieving the same performance from the traverse equipment that traverse teams in Antarctica do, said Allen Cornelison, GrIT manager for Polar Field Services (a partner in Ch2M HILL Polar Services).

Members of the 2010 Greenland Inland Traverse (GrIT) conduct Ramsonde tests to measure the snow strength along the way from Thule Air Base to Summit Station. Poor snow strength can slow the traverse's progress because the equipment sinks into the snow. All photos: Robin Davies

“The tests will also help us to understand what aspects of our equipment we need to improve to get better performance out of our tractors and the sleds,” Cornelison said.

Lightening the Load, Reducing Resistance

In addition, this year’s traverse team tested sled and load configurations that improved towing performance. Specifically, they discovered that longer sleds—as opposed to wider ones—pull better. The extra length allows the snow/sled interface to warm up slightly more to create a thin film of water, reducing friction and resulting in less pulling resistance.

Using longer sleds created more friction between the sled and snow and improved towing performance compared to the GrIT 2008.

“This is a huge ordeal (pulling resistance) we are trying to overcome,” said Cornelison. “The [Antarctic traverse] can pull more than we can—by 25 percent. This is because the Greenlandic ice sheet gets a lot more snow, and that snow is stratified and not as solid and ‘work hardened’ (by the wind and time) as the snow in Antarctica.”

To overcome this problem, the GrIT either needs to invest in expensive larger tractors, haul lighter loads (which would be inefficient), or figure out how to get the lowest pulling forces with the highest weighted loads.

New Sleds Improve Towing

This year the team also used a product called Durabase as a cargo sled to haul solid equipment The Durabase replaced the HMW plastic fuel bladder sleds used in 2008 that “tacoed” when the cargo traps were tightened. This contributed to towing problems and the team determined the fuel bladder sleds are too compliant for solid cargo.

However, the Durabase “worked out really well in that it is made of HMW plastic, so it is slippery, but it is also semi-rigid,” said Cornelison.

“This rigidity allowed us to secure hard items to the Durabase nicely,” he said. “But the challenge with the Durabase is that it is quite heavy, and we are constantly trying to reduce weight and make sleds more slippery.”

Advantages of a Traverse

CH2M HILL Polar Services (CPS) has completed two traverses, and anticipates integrating an overland traverse into annual operations. Traveling by ground can save money and result in fewer emissions and can complement air deliveries to the remote stations CPS supports.

The team has identified the ideal route for the traverse, though the first 70 miles may alter each year depending on where crevasses open, said Cornelison. And, given the melt rate of the ice sheet, the route may require reevaluation at some point “if our ice ramp turns into mountains and canyons,” Cornelison said.

Looking Ahead

To prepare for future traverses, PFS has purchased three new tractors and will haul more fuel and cargo in spring 2011 to NEEM and Summit. The team is also working with the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) on concept air cargo sleds that will be provided to the Antarctic traverse to test this year.

This is the last time these tractors will see so much green! Destined for Greenland and integral to future Greenland traverses, the three Case tractors will serve as primary traverse vehicles.

“Looking to the future, I see the traverse supporting many more operations on the Greenland ice sheet,” said Cornelison. “I am guessing as well that science groups will recognize a benefit to the new route and road that has opened up the ice sheet. I wouldn’t be surprised, for example, to see more drilling camps, more environmental, and more glacial research happening in the future once we get the GrIT more established and mitigate some of our challenges.”  —Rachel Walker

The Greenland Inland Traverse is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). CH2M HILL Polar Services and Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratories are working together with the NSF to develop the traverse infrastructure and route. For more field notes coverage of GrIT, click here. 

Comments (0) Aug 25 2010

A row of flags at the international ice drilling station in remote northern Greenland. Photo: Ed Stockard

After drilling through the ice at the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling Project (NEEM), an international team of scientists this week hit bedrock 1.5 miles beneath the ice surface. In doing so they recovered ice from the Eemian interglacial period—between 115,000 to 130,000 years ago. During that time, atmospheric temperatures were warmer than they are today, said Jim White, director of the Boulder, CO-based Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.

The Past as Analogue for the Future

“The Eemian, or the last interglacial period, is the last time climate was as warm as it is today,” White said in a radio interview Aug. 3 with KGNU. “In fact, it was warmer than it is today. And that’s important because as climate warms, we want to know what the impacts are going to be. How much ice is going to melt, how are the climate patterns going to change, are the agricultural areas going to stay the same or are they going to change. And the last interglacial period, being warmer, is a good analogue for the future.”

Higher Sea Levels

During the Eemian, sea levels were more than 15 feet higher than they are today. Scientists predict that melting sea ice could cause sea levels to rise more than three feet by the end of this century.

A worker repares the drill for the next ice core run. Photo: Sebastian B. Simonsen

Studying ice cores from the Eemian period could unlock climate mysteries because the new cores are thicker and more intact than previous ice cores drilled in Greenland in the last 20 years. In the earlier cores, the deepest layers were compressed and folded, making the data difficult to interpret.

Annual ice layers formed over millennia in Greenland by compressed snow reveal information on past temperatures and precipitation levels, as well as the contents of ancient atmospheres, said White. Ice cores from previous drilling efforts revealed temperature spikes of more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit in just 50 years in the Northern Hemisphere.

Ice Cores and Climate

White said the latest cores would offer critical insight for forecasting future weather and climate.

“The cores tell us that these interglacial periods, and climate in general, is not a static thing,” he said in his radio interview. “We should expect change. We should expect that sea level will change. We should expect that temperatures will change. We should not be surprised that climate changes when we do something as fundamental as adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.”

An international study released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week showed the first decade of the 21st century was the warmest on record for the planet.

An International Affair

The NEEM project involves 300 scientists and students and is led by Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, director of the University of Copenhagen’s Centre of Ice and Climate. The United States portion of the effort is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs.

A View Into the Past

The two meters of ice just above bedrock from NEEM — which is located at one of the most inaccessible parts of the Greenland ice sheet — go beyond the Eemian interglacial period into the previous ice age. It contains rocks and other material that have not seen sunlight for hundreds of thousands of years, said White. The researchers expect the cores to be rich in DNA and pollen that can tell scientists about the plants that existed in Greenland before it was covered with ice.

The core samples are being studied in detail using a suite of measurements, including stable water isotopes that reveal information about temperature and moisture changes back in time. The team is using state-of-the art laser instruments to measure the isotopes, as well as atmospheric gas bubbles trapped in the ice and ice crystals to understand past variations in climate on a year-by-year basis, said White.

Greenland—Before the Ice

As part of the project, the researchers want to determine how much smaller the Greenland ice sheet was 120,000 years ago when the temperatures were higher than present, as well as how much and how fast the Greenland ice sheet contributed to sea level.

The NEEM facility includes a large dome, a drilling rig to extract 3-inch-in-diameter ice cores, drilling trenches, labs and living quarters. The United States is leading the laboratory analysis of atmospheric gases trapped in bubbles within the cores, including greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.

Other nations involved in NEEM include Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Other U.S. institutions involved in the effort include Oregon State University, Penn State, the University of California, San Diego and Dartmouth College. —Rachel Walker

Comments (0) Aug 04 2010

Story and photos by Ed Stockard

On a still day, icebergs calved from Jakobshavn Glacier reflect their mirror images in the glassy surface of the ice fjord just south of Ilulissat.

When several members of the flight crew break out cameras and begin to take video footage and still images you know you’re on a good flight! On May 18^th I was invited with another PFS team member (Mark Begnaud) as a guest of NEEM and the Air National Guard 109^th  on a flight from Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, to the NEEM ice core drilling camp on the Greenland ice sheet.

As you may know, NEEM is an international research project run by the Danes at the University of Copenhagen. The NEEM project is drilling an ice core that goes all the way through the ice sheet to bedrock. The science community wants to get information trapped in the deep ice about past climate going back to the last interglacial period, the Eemian, which ended around 115,000 years ago.  As you may also know, the 109^th is the airlift wing that flies the C-130s between New York and Greenland, and then provides heavy airlift around the island for the National Science Foundation’s research program.

So we’re on a “milk run”–the 109^th is delivering fresh food, fuel and science equipment to NEEM.

The flight to NEEM is about three hours long. We fly along the coast of northwest Greenland. Views of coastal vegetation and lakes soon give way to inlets, the iceberg-choked and lovely Disko Bay and impressive outflow glaciers, including Jakobshavn Glacier and the ice fjord.  We are fortunate today to have clear weather and calm winds at the surface.

Flying along the coast of Greenland on a clear, still day.

Calm winds at the surface? Who cares?! Well, when my camera catches reflections of mountains on the smooth waters of Greenland from 19,000 feet up, that is pretty darned impressive. In typical fashion I’m snapping photos like a blue-haired lady dropping quarters in a Las Vegas one armed bandit–that would be a lot of photos. 

Soon enough, we are over the ice sheet and on the final approach to NEEM. The skiway is clearly visible and all approach markers are in place.  The giant grey bird, our ski-equipped LC-130, flops on to the skiway and bumps to a stop.  It’s not elegant and there’s no first-class cabin, but these planes deliver the goods time after time to remote polar places other heavy-lift aircraft simply can’t go.  And when you’re invited up front, the view from the cockpit beats first-class travel any day.

JP Steffensen greets the 109th crew upon arrival at NEEM.

On snow at NEEM we are greeted by JP Steffensen, the legendary field leader who’s forgotten more about coring Greenland ice than most people will ever know.  He’s in charge of operations at the camp. JP gives us a tour of the under-snow drilling facility and the dome where operations, recreation and dining are located.

The drill trench is amazing.  We enter through a weatherport-style structure and descend a stairway to approximately 10 meters below the surface.  It’s otherworldly down there. The drillers are between runs, and so the massive drill is at the surface, lying horizontally. A couple of staff are tinkering with the drill. There is an unprocessed core nearby.

Tinkering with the drill.

The crew is busy and focused. They are also quite pleased with the progress being made this season. We ask a few questions and get a few answers before passing through a short tunnel to the area where the core is being kept and processed.  The room includes a heated lab with gadgetry I don’t understand doing all kinds of highly technical analyses of the core’s physical properties, chemical composition, the tiny particles blown on to the ice sheet and trapped in the core all those years ago, and so on. There’s a spur tunnel where cold air is pumped from surrounding firn snow to keep temperatures around a chilling -26C to enable some of the isotope studies they are doing on the core.  

The ice core awaits further processing.

A new core storage cave keeps the core frozen with very cold air pumped from the firn layer of snow.

The NEEM facility currently runs one of the best core labs in the world. I’m no expert, so I won’t even try to do this place justice. Let’s just say it is impressive.

Back at the dome, Lt Col Ed Gadarowski delivers American cook Sarah Harvey a USPS package. This is Gadarowski’s final Greenland deployment with the 109^th and as of this writing “Gator” has retired.  Gator was a part time guardsmen; his real job is working with the postal service back in New York, so it’s a good joke. We take a short tour of the facility and pinch a brownie off of Sarah’s lunch service. We head back to the plane for the return trip to Kangerlussuaq. The crew has uploaded empty barrels, garbage and a few precious ice samples.

Lt Col Ed "Gater" Gadarowski delivers the mail to chef Sarah Harvey.

It is a short and bumpy run down the skiway as we depart on our first slide. The next three hours are nothing less than spectacular. As we near Ilulissat we lose altitude and check out the town. Disko Bay sparkles and the icebergs of the Jakobshavn Glacier gleam an otherworldly blue. It is a beautiful day for flying!

Comments (0) Jun 22 2010

Has anyone else noticed how much the iconic NEEM dome. . .

. . . looks like the Omnidroid from The Incredibles?

Just sayin’.

Comments (0) Oct 09 2009