Greenland Ice Sheet Snowfall Patterns

August 2 (Tuesday), 6 p.m., Teton Co. Library Auditorium – Open to Public. Presentation: ” Snowfall patterns across the Greenland Ice Sheet: Greenland TRaverse for Accumulation and Climate Studies (GreenTRACS)”. Presented by Tate Meehan, Forrest McCarthy, & H P Marshall, Boise State University.

GreenTRACS, a 1000-mile long, six-week science traverse by snowmobile across the Greenland Ice Sheet, was just completed successfully at the beginning of June, by Jackson local Forrest McCarthy, BSU graduate student Tate Meehan, and a team from Dartmouth College. This continental-scale field campaign, to measure historic snowfall patterns, was performed to improve our understanding of sea level rise. Greenland’s contribution to total sea level rise has been accelerating since 2005, and is currently ~10% of the total 1 foot rise per century. The GreenTRACS traverse targeted the SW part of the ice sheet, where current snowfall rates are changing and patterns are poorly understood. The team surveyed 1,200 km of the ice sheet with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and GPS, collected seven 28-30 meter ice cores, dug 22 snow pits and measured albedo and surface roughness. This presentation will present slides, stories, and science from the successful 6-week expedition. More details at greentracs.blogspot.com.