Update
This expedition will deploy in 2022.
What Are They Doing?
The Greenland Ice Sheet near Kangerslussuaq, Greenland. Photo by Tina Ciarametaro.
Estimates of the Greenland ice sheet's contribution to sea level rise over the next century range from a few centimeters to over one meter. Differences of a few millimeters per year may be significant in lowlying, populous coastal areas where planning with such a large range of uncertainty has high economic and social costs for governments, communities, and businesses. This study will improve our understanding of how increases in surface runoff will influence ice flow and subsequent loss of water mass from the Greenland ice sheet to the oceans.
Where Are They?
An aerial view of Ilulissat, Greenland. Photo by Russell Hood.
Ilulissat is a coastal town in western Greenland. It's known for the Ilulissat Icefjord and for huge icebergs Disko Bay, shed by the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier.
Latest Journals
Erin Towns is an experienced and adventurous social science teacher at Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine USA. Erin is a 2018 National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow and alumni of numerous global professional development programs who uses world travel experiences to create experiential lessons and strategies for students and teachers that address contemporary global and environmental issues. She values using inquiry based social studies and science methodology in the classroom and she continually pushes students to take action using informed knowledge and discourse that promote and encourage public awareness and engagement. Her students regularly share solutions oriented geo-inquiry projects with local school administrators, city councils, business leaders, state legislators, and public officials using storytelling with the goal of inspiring others to act. Erin shares knowledge and curriculum ideas that connect climate change phenomena and social, policial, and economic conflict with educators at state and national levels. Erin is an active member of the Maine Council for Social Studies and serves as Teacher Ambassador of The Camden Conference in the Classroom Program, a foreign policy organization in Maine which serves fifteen schools and promotes public discourse on topics of global relevance. Her greatest passion is exploring outside of the classroom with her diverse community of students and watching them make connections between the human and natural world. She is humbled and grateful for the opportunity to build relationships with these phenomenal young women and men who consistently amaze her everyday with their hard work, humor, and creativity. Erin will integrate what she learns about the Greenland Ice Sheet’s contribution to sea level rise into social studies curriculum and citizen science research projects related to the Gulf of Maine.
Dr. Sarah Das is a glaciologist and climate scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Her specific research interests include understanding and measuring polar ice sheet mass balance and ice dynamics; the reconstruction of past climate from ice cores; exploring the interaction between the coupled cryosphere-atmosphere-ocean systems; and investigating biogeochemical processes in polar environments. Since her first trip to Antarctica in 1995, Dr. Das has led or participated in over 20 field expeditions to the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. In addition to her scientific studies, she is committed to sharing her knowledge of the polar regions and climate change with students and the public through photography, education, and outreach activities.