Onward to Greenland

A month from now I'll be on my way to Jakobshavns Isbrae, a glacier in western Greenland. I'll travel from Fairbanks to Albany, NY, via commercial airlines. From there we'll fly on an Air National Guard plane to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, and then hop on a smaller plane to Ilullissat. We'll spend a few days in Ilullisaat organizing gear and double-checking everything, and then we'll take a helicopter to our camp site located at the terminus of Jakobshavns (or Sermeq Kujalleq, in Greenlandic). Check it out on Google Earth: our camp site will be located at about 69°07'30"N, 49°43'48"W. The fjord in front of the glacier that is now filled with brash sea ice was occupied by the glacier as recently as 200 years ago. The current terminus position is actually about 5-10 km back from where it appears in the Google Earth image. Sermeq Kujalleq drains 7% of the Greenland ice sheet, is up to 2500 m thick, and flows at a rate of about 15 km/yr at the terminus. Its impressive, so I'm told.

We'll be in the field for about 6 weeks, and then returning to Fairbanks via Copenhagen... We aren't able to fly with the Air National Guard on our return trip so we're forced to take the scenic route. The benefit is that we get to meet with some researchers in Copenhagen - and I'm going to take few days off and explore the city and its surroundings. So if you're going to be in the area... Let's meet!