GFZ German research centre for geo sciences

Ice Mass Dynamics in Greenland – Climate Information from Seismological Data

17.01.2014|Potsdam: With the successful completion of the seismological Greenland Ice Sheet Monitoring Network (GLISN) a milestone for the observation of the Arctic area has now been achieved. The GFZ is participating here with some stations of its global GEOFON network.

17.01.2014|Potsdam: The dynamics of ice masses in the Arctic plays a major role for the global climate. Here seismological observations can substantially complement satellite, ice radar and GPS measurements. Another milestone for the observation of the Arctic area has now been achieved with the successful completion of the seismological Greenland Ice Sheet Monitoring Network (GLISN). The GFZ is participating here with some stations of its global GEOFON network. As been reported in the recent issue of EOS (Vol. 95, No. 2, 14 January 2013) institutions from Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Switzerland and USA have been working together to establish a modern seismological network on Greenland. Canada, Norway and Poland have been adding existing stations in northeast Canada, Svalbard and Iceland to extend the network into the larger region. In total, GLISN comprises 33 stations, 4 of them on ice sheet. Some stations are co-located with GPS sites or equipped with GPS sensors. Nearly all stations provide their data in real-time to the GLISN data centres in Seattle (IRIS) and at GFZ (GEOFON). Beside complementing the global seismological network and monitoring local earthquakes, the scope of the project includes the detection, location and quantification of ice quakes, to be able to estimate ice flow rates and directions as well as melting rates. The GFZ is active in Greenland since the mid 1990s and operates since then GEOFON stations in the northeast and southwest of the island. Between 2000 and 2006 several temporary experiments have been carried out jointly with the Danish colleagues from GEUS, including stations on the ice sheet. The station at the highest point of the ice sheet (Summit Research Camp for atmospheric physics) has been turned into a permanent GEOFON station. In the GLISN framework another station on the west coast and two on the east coast have been added in cooperation with IRIS (USA) and GEUS (Denmark). Grace satellite gravity data of Greenland complement these measurements.

Website GEOFON

Images in printable resolution can be found here:
www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/media-communication/bildarchiv/ice-mass-dynamics-in-greenland-and-antarctic/

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