International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

were members of the IASC Working Group on Arctic
Glaciology (IASC-WAG; now called the IASC Cryosphere
WG). The annual IASC-WAG meetings and subsequent
GLACIODYN workshops were the main venues for
discussion of results, planning of combined fieldwork
and shaping of the output. A GLACIODYN workshop
has been held every year during and since IPY.
Research groups from 17 countries contributed to
GLACIODYN. However, the funding was derived from
national research councils and varied considerably
from country to country. Strong support was received
in Canada, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Russia
and Poland, with more limited support in Sweden,
Finland, Germany, U.K., Iceland and U.S.A., however, all
17 countries contributed in some way to the project.
IPY field and analysis activities of Arctic
terrestrial ice, 2007–2010
The Greenland ice sheet
Numerous resources were allocated to augment
our understanding of the mass and energy balances
of the Greenland ice sheet through improved data on
snow-ice accumulation, run-off and bottom melting
as well as iceberg production. In 2007, 19 different field
teams were deployed and active on the ice sheet; 13 of
them funded by the National Science Foundation and
headed by U.S. scientists, and six funded by Europe
and headed by scientists from Denmark, United
Kingdom, Norway and the Netherlands.
In addition, NASA regularly made low-level flights
with laser altimeters over the ice sheet to update
data on ice volume changes. The U.S., Denmark and
Greenland shared efforts to operate more than 20
automatic, satellite-linked weather stations that
monitor and record climate parameters on all parts of
the ice sheet (Fig. 2.4-2).
An increasing research focus was directed to
the surging glaciers in southeast Greenland and,
in particular, to Ilulissat Glacier that had shown
remarkable change in the five years prior to IPY.
Research teams from the U.S., Germany and Denmark
measured the ice stream dynamics, mapped the
morphology of the extensive sub-glacial trough
beneath the trunk, calculated the annual discharge
and the catchment area, and modelled how this
unique glacier may behave in the future.
Scientists from 14 nations participated in the NEEM
ice coring activity, the most international ice core
effort to date. More than 300 ice core researchers,
including many young scientists, rotated through the
NEEM camp during the four years of field operations.
Like all deep ice coring projects, NEEM was a multiyear
effort requiring massive logistic support. In
Fig. 2.4-2. Deploying
an automatic weather
station on the
Greenland ice sheet
during IPY.
(Photo: K. Steffen)
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