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Greenland Expedition Dispatches


Pure as the Driven Snow

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA -- (By Lisa Strong-Aufhauser) Even the snow on top of the Greenland ice sheet is not as pure as you’d think. Dr. Joe McConnell from the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, studies the impurities...



Update on Greenland’s Glaciers

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS-- Last time we saw Mark Fahnestock was in Greenland, as he was wrapping up his season's field work on the Jakobshavn Isbræ, one…



Minding the Data for Ice Sheets

ILULISSAT, GREENLAND-- In this video, we talk with Jeaime Powell, a graduate student from Elizabeth City State University working on the Polar Grid project. After every twin-otter airplane flight made from Ilulissat to map the Greenland Ice Sheet, Jeaime and his colleagues check over the data...



Ice Sheets & Climate Change

ILULISSAT, GREENLAND-- We spent a lot of time at the Ilulissat airport, hopping on helicopters at every opportunity but also hanging out with the crew on an ice-mapping project out of the University of Kansas and NASA. In this video, we talk with Earl Frederick of NASA about the ice-mapping flights over the Greenland Ice Sheet...



On Speeding Glaciers and Huge Icebergs, Part 2

KANGERLUSSUAQ, GREENLAND– Last week, we showed you a video interview with glaciologist Mark Fahnestock who described how he and his team are measuring the motion of the Jakobshavn Isbræ, one of the fastest-moving glaciers in the world. Here, Dr. Fahnestock describes the roar of a 1000-foot iceberg dropping off the Jakobshavn...



On Speeding Glaciers and Huge Icebergs

KANGERLUSSUAQ, GREENLAND-- We caught up with glaciologist Mark Fahnestock on his way back home after a few weeks camping near the Jakobshavn Isbræ, the most productive and among the fastest-moving glaciers in the world...



Facing the Glacier

ILULISSAT, GREENLAND-- Lisa and I had just flown into the tiny Ilulissat airport and were told we were catching a helicopter ride that afternoon to…



Putting the Green Back in Greenland

KANGERLUSSUAQ, GREENLAND-- There are two theories about how Greenland was named, both having to do with the 10th century Vikings who first christened this gigantic Arctic island. One is that Erik the Red, having been banished from Iceland because of his murderous ways...



Helicopter Safari for Rocks

ILULISSAT, GREENLAND-- We were there for their first day of scouting near Kangerlussuaq, and had the chance to tag along with scientists Tom Neumann and Paul Bierman again on their last day of science in Greenland, recording this video dispatch...



Like Standing in a Bowl of Rice Krispies

ILULISSAT, GREENLAND-- Lisa and I were alone on the Greenland Ice Sheet while the scientists were doing helicopter surveys of the lakes. It was a gorgeous day when suddenly we heard more cracking and popping from the ice...