RV Lance is one of many research ships that scientists use to study the extreme Arctic region and lowered buoys from the ship to measure water characteristics They braved harsh winds and temperatures as low as 40 degrees Fahrenheit 40 C to study the formation and breakup of younger thinner sea ice They also had some confrontations with polar bears and had to be towed by the Norwegian Coast Guard after getting stuck in the ice Yet such research voyages are essential to understanding how and why All the climatic processes seem to be pushing rapidly toward a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean 9 Dr Julienne Stroeve National Snow and Ice Data Center 10
ice is melting now They are also essential to understanding the future of Arctic ice CALVING GLACIERS It is difficult to catch the process of calving as it happens But sometimes good data and a good movie result from a combination of luck preparedness and perseverance Just ask the film crew of the movie Chasing Ice which centers on nature photographer James Balog Balog’s goal was to document the melting of Arctic ice due to climate change He began his crusade to document climate change in 2005 when National Geographic sent him on assignment to the Arctic Balog was originally a climate-change skeptic He thought statements about climate change were based only on computer models with no concrete measurements involved But that first Arctic trip convinced him of the reality of climate change He created the Extreme Ice Survey an expedition that would keep him and a small group of intrepid explorers visiting the Arctic for years They assembled a series of time-lapse cameras in the savage Arctic environment and kept them running They captured years of ice footage and compressed it into seconds documenting the movement and rapid disappearance of Arctic ice 11 OPERATION ICEBRIDGE The National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA project Operation IceBridge has made airborne surveys of Arctic and Antarctic ice since 2009 IceBridge gives scientists a multiyear three-dimensional view of ice sheets ice shelves and sea ice It uses many instruments to show the rapid changes in polar ice Arctic flights have gathered data on changing elevations and the internal structure of the Greenland ice sheet They found a 460-mile 740 km canyon beneath a mile 1 6 km of ice and a vast area of liquid water under the snow in southern Greenland 10 IceBridge data helps scientists better predict the summer melt season and better understand yearly variations in ice thickness
THE CALVING OF JAKOBSHAVN The glacier calving in Chasing Ice was just one example of a continuing process Huge chunks of ice are breaking off Greenland’s glaciers with increasing regularity Another massive event occurred in August 2015 and is called by scientists one of the most significant calving events on record 13 In this event a chunk of ice measuring 4 2 cubic miles 17 5 cu km broke off Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier the world’s fastest-moving glacier No one witnessed the event firsthand but it was documented by radar images from the European Space Agency’s ESA Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-2A weather satellites The images showed the presence of the chunk of ice on August 14 and its absence on August 16 Jakobshavn Glacier is one of several glaciers along the Ilulissat fjord Every year it generates 10 percent of all Greenland calf ice more than any other glacier outside Antarctica 14 In 2012 Balog’s crew waited weeks to catch the calving of Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier The crew had a front-row seat as a massive section of glacial ice in this case a volume of 1 8 cubic miles 7 4 cu km crashed into the surrounding ocean 11 The result was the largest calving event ever filmed With four separate time-lapse cameras set up and rolling crew members Adam LeWinter and Jeff Orlowski watched amazed as a vast piece of the ice cliff began to break off It took 75 minutes for all of the ice to break off and fall LeWinter said The only way that you can really try to put it into scale with human reference is if you imagine Manhattan And all of a sudden all of those buildings just start to rumble and quake and peel off and fall over fall over and roll around This whole massive city just breaking apart in front of your eyes 12 The Jakobshavn Glacier retreated eight miles 12 9 km during the entire 1900s In the single decade from 2000 to 2010 it retreated nine miles 14 5 km This provides one piece of evidence of the incredible rate of global warming Altogether evidence from around the world has scientists very worried They are monitoring the calving of glaciers and the rapid melting of sea ice These measurements help them gauge the rate of global climate change The rapid Arctic 12
The calving of a glacier can be an ear-splitting ground-shaking event melting they are documenting will have implications not only in the Arctic but also around the world It will affect world ocean currents and climate It will raise sea levels changing the world’s islands and coasts It will affect every person on Earth Ice is the canary in the global coal mine It’s the place where we can see and touch and hear and feel climate change in action 15 James Balog founder of Extreme Ice Survey 13
