Research Projects

Summit Station in Greenland has been the research location for many National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (NSF-OPP) activities for over twenty years. The value of the facility is based on its location, well above the Arctic circle, high enough in elevation to be in the free troposphere, not influenced by human settlements or the moderating effects of the ocean, and the site of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) deep ice core. Summit Station (72N, 38W, 3250 m.a.s.l.) hosts the Greenland Environmental Observatory (GEOSummit), the only NSF site with permission from the Government of Greenland and the Danish Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland to provide long-term environmental measurements. Summit Station is staffed year-round and fills an important niche in the international scientific community’s global measurement capability. The Science Coordination Office (SCO) for Summit Station represents research interests that utilize the station, providing regular feedback to the managers of the Arctic Research Support and Logistics Program (RSL) and conveying information back to the research community about NSF’s plans for the station. The SCO presents the needs and desires of the science community working on the ice sheet in interior Greenland in discussions and decision-making process between RSL and their primary logistics support contractor. NSF has stated plans to recapitalize the infrastructure at Summit Station over the next 8 years and the SCO will ensure there is communication with the research community throughout the planning and design process. The SCO concurs with NSF’s goals to make a safe and sustainable Summit Station elevated above the drifting snow and preserving the clean air and clean snow research areas. The GEOSummit website has resources for new Principal Investigators, students and educators. 

Summit Station, Greenland is the site of decades of study of the past climate through deep ice cores, and studies of atmospheric chemistry, snow processes and, more recently, the study of high-energy neutrinos from the origins of the universe. Through this effort, the SCO will ensure that plans to operate and in coming years to recapitalize the infrastructure at Summit Station will be done with the interests of the research community. The SCO meets regularly with the arctic logistics contractor science support, logistics and operations at Summit Station to remain informed about plans and communicate research interests. The SCO is invited to review documents and provide input on plans for Summit Station. SCO will continue to advocate for Summit Station site plans that accommodate an influx of astrophysical research while maintaining long standing focus on climate relevant research which needs clean air and snow conditions. This plan will also welcome and support researchers from a range of other disciplines and will include opportunities to educate students and new researchers but must keep everyone from inadvertently interfering with each other. The SCO website is a keystone of communication to the science community, with several features added over the past few years such as the web-based GIS -- recording activity in the region over the past 12 years, a virtual tour using Streetview images, a new “Working at Summit” section targeting new investigators, a comprehensive bibliography of published work near Summit, and a quarterly newsletter.

This is a project that is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation’s Directorate of Geosciences (NSF/GEO) and the National Environment Research Council (UKRI/NERC) of the United Kingdom (UK) via the NSF/GEO-NERC Lead Agency Agreement. This Agreement allows a single joint US/UK proposal to be submitted and peer-reviewed by the Agency whose investigator has the largest proportion of the budget. Upon successful joint determination of an award, each Agency funds the proportion of the budget and the investigators associated with its own proposals and component of the work.

This research project continues an 11-year field experiment called the Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric state, and Precipitation at Summit (ICECAPS) and adds measurements along Lagrangian transects (ICECAPS-MELT). The project is an international collaboration that has been operating ground-based instruments at Summit Station in Greenland since 2010, taking observations of the atmosphere to advance understanding of cloud properties, radiation and surface energy, and precipitation processes over the Greenland Ice Sheet. It is an important time to make these observations because Greenland is undergoing changes due to rapid shifts in Arctic climate. The current project continues the observations made at Summit Station and expands measurements along transects to another important region of Greenland called the percolation zone. In this zone, melt water is generated at the surface, where it can percolate down into the snow and then refreeze. This creates ice layers that can cause additional melt water to move horizontally rather than vertically. It is important to understand these processes because melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet is a significant contributor to global sea level, which is predicted to impact humans significantly over the next century.

This new ICECAPS-MELT project complements the ICECAPS Summit observatory by building a new mobile observatory for measuring parameters of the surface mass and energy budgets of the Greenland Ice Sheet. This observatory uses a novel approach for unattended, autonomous operation by supporting instruments that require moderate power and internet bandwidth yet are quite like those operated at Summit Station. The new observatory measures surface mass and energy budget parameters, including precipitation, cloud properties, radiative and turbulent fluxes, near-surface meteorology, and subsurface temperatures and structure. To do this, the ICECAPS-MELT team deploys a precipitation radar, a cloud lidar, a microwave radiometer, a ground-penetrating radar, and an automated surface flux station, which consume approximately 500 W of power under normal conditions. The project will lead to new insights into how parameters of the surface mass and energy budgets co-vary in space and time between this new observatory and the ongoing measurements at Summit. Trajectory analyses track the changes in air parcels as they ascend the Greenland Ice Sheet and pass over the two observational sites. The mobile observatory will be deployed in successive summers at Summit Station in the dry-snow zone and at the DYE-2 station in the percolation zone. If this project is successful, a network of these observatories will be proposed for future deployment in southwestern Greenland, which will provide new insights into how atmospheric properties and processes are coupled both spatially and temporally to the ice sheet’s surface and subsurface conditions over Greenland.

Ultra-high-energy neutrinos are unique astrophysical messengers as they interact only weakly with intervening matter and can therefore be used to probe high energy sources and extreme conditions throughout the universe, and to test physics at energies beyond the standard models. With support from this award, the PIs will expand the currently operating Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G) to enable observations of the highest-energy neutrinos. When combined with observations from other messengers like photons, cosmic rays, and gravitational waves, observations of neutrinos made with RNO-G can further advance our understanding of the most powerful cosmic ray accelerators and explosive events in the universe. This award will engage people from a broad range of backgrounds in multi-messenger astrophysics through this research and through dedicated student workshops and activities. This award addresses the priority areas of NSF's "Windows on the Universe" Big Idea.

RNO-G's design is optimized to search for the radio flash generated by neutrino interactions in polar ice using modular stations that act as their own independent experiments. With the large footprint of the full array, RNO-G will have an unprecedented sensitivity and will be the first ultra-high energy neutrino observatory with a view of the Northern sky. This two-year program will continue to build the RNO-G array beyond the seven stations currently installed and operating in Greenland. The supported groups will improve the drill reliability and efficiency to more rapidly install stations in the ice. They will construct and install the instrumentation and commission the stations. They will study radio wave propagation in ice, crucial for accurate modeling of the instrument. They will operate the RNO-G stations in science data-taking mode and study the performance of the instrument.

This NASA award supports the continuation and expansion of long-term measurements of the Arctic atmosphere, snow, and other Earth system components at the Summit, Greenland, Environmental Observatory (GEOSummit). The original measurement program began in 2003. Year-round measurements with at least 10 years in duration are required to observe and quantify the roles of large-scale, multiyear oscillations in oceanic and atmospheric circulation (e.g., Arctic Oscillation), snow accumulation, firn densification, and ice flow effects. The "Broader Impacts" of these observations are numerous and include the potential to transform understanding of the role of natural and anthropogenic aerosols in climate forcing, to improve climate models and the prediction of future Arctic environmental change, provide ground calibration for satellite measurements of ice sheet elevation, and to enhance the interpretation of ice core records of paleo-environmental variability.

The Arctic and Antarctic are undergoing rapid changes in their marine, glacial, ecological, atmospheric, and social systems. Addressing the societally relevant consequences of this change, which are local and global in scope, requires a more diverse and integrative U.S. polar STEM community with leaders prepared for international and cross-cultural collaborations. Dartmouth will lead the U.S. component of two international efforts to develop inclusive polar STEM learning opportunities for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students that will help build capacity for U.S. leadership in the polar regions. The Joint Science Education Project (JSEP) includes a close collaboration with international and Indigenous partners in Greenland and Denmark, and the Joint Antarctic School Expedition (JASE) includes a partnership with Chile. The field-based JSEP program will immerse U.S. students in experiential learning in Kangerlussuaq and Summit Station, Greenland. JSEP will include a remote short course for U.S. high school students to learn about the Arctic through data-focused activities. The JASE program includes a partnership with the Chilean Antarctic Institute to co-lead a virtual symposium for students to share Arctic and Antarctic research. Applications for both programs will be encouraged from students across the U.S. and recruitment will focus on reaching students who have limited access to STEM experiences and who come from groups historically excluded from STEM fields.

The JSEP and JASE experiences will be developed around a unique intergenerational mentor-mentee model that gives U.S. high school students access to undergraduate and graduate students as near-peer mentors and opportunities for the student mentors to develop their communication and outreach skills. The effort includes an evaluation and dissemination of the inclusive models for U.S. polar STEM education and research programs that prioritize diversity, collaboration, communication, outreach, cultural sharing, and building sustained relationships with Arctic and Antarctic partners. This includes implementing new approaches for recruiting and supporting students whose opportunities for polar STEM have been limited by factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, and socio-economic and ability status. Results will inform future efforts to successfully provide education and research experiences to U.S. students interested in polar science and engineering. This project will expand an international and diverse network of students, educators, and scientists with skills for polar research, outreach, and STEM careers. JSEP and JASE will involve at least 100 U.S. high school students and up to 20 undergraduate or graduate students with a goal that many of these students come from groups historically excluded from STEM fields. Students, educators, and scientists involved with this project will gain exposure to field-based polar research and improve their skills for: science communication; cross-cultural and international collaborations; framing scholarship to meet the needs of Arctic communities; and recognizing and respecting Indigenous knowledge. The undergraduate and graduate students will receive hands-on training in interdisciplinary research and outreach, which will prepare them as STEM leaders with skills for broadening impacts of their future scholarship. The project also provides significant opportunity for science diplomacy and to strengthen relationships by engaging our Arctic and Antarctic partners in all aspects of project planning, implementation, assessment, and reporting. Assessments will allow evaluation of how the following pedagogical elements impact outcomes for U.S. students (high school, undergraduate, and graduate): field-based versus virtual, hands-on activities, interdisciplinary curriculum, Indigenous perspectives, intergenerational mentor-mentee relationships, and a multicultural setting. Results will inform future efforts to successfully provide education and research experiences to U.S. students interested in polar science and engineering.
 

This project is a continuation of the Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net), a system of 16 AWS’s that were established in 1995 as part of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) climate research program. Each GC-Net AWS is equipped with a number of instruments to sample the following: air temperature, wind speed, wind direction, humidity, pressure; accumulation rate at high temporal resolution to identify and resolve individual storms; surface radiation balance in visible and infrared wavelengths; sensible and latent heat fluxes; and snowpack conductive heat fluxes.

While the GC-Net AWS’s were maintained for many years by the late Dr. Konrad Steffen at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), in early 2021, GEUS took over responsibility and maintenance of the network. Ultimately, the GC-Net AWS’s are a central part of climate monitoring on the Greenland ice sheet where data from the stations is used to validate satellite data and improve climate models of the ice sheet.

Green2Ice will investigate the deepest and oldest ice and basal sediments drilled from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). Ice cores have been drilled the last 55 years, but the deepest ice containing basal materials has been preserved until now, and still holds undeciphered paleoclimatic messages. The breakthrough of Green2Ice is to develop and apply cutting edge dating methods on this unique sample collection and hence to reconstruct the age and the stability of the GrIS. A hypothesis to test is if the present GrIS formed at the time of the Mid Pleistocene Transition, 1,2 - 0.8 million years ago. One innovation of Green2Ice is to gain paleo-information of the past size of the GrIS to constrain future tipping points. This knowledge will reduce the uncertainty on estimates of future sea level rise. Green2Ice will bring together four PIs from three world leading institutions with complementary skills to lift this strongly interdisciplinary program. We will drill a replicate core at GRIP, to supplement the available material from five existing ice cores and ensure retrieval of sediments and rock material from beneath the GrIS summit. We will develop, improve and apply novel dating techniques (cosmogenic and radiogenic nuclides, OSL/IRSL, modeling of gas and isotope diffusion) to place constraints on past waxing and waning of the GrIS. State-of-the-art methodologies on fossil remains, organic matter, in situ produced and consumed greenhouse gases, and ancient bio-molecules will provide insights on the types of ecosystems and environmental conditions that emerged during ice-free conditions. Interpretation will include ice sheet modelling with data benchmarking to establish the climatic sensitivity of the GrIS. Earth system modelling and collaboration with the groups preparing the IPCC AR7 will bring the knowledge of the past into the future. The rare and unique basal ice and material can only be used once. This is the main high risk high gain component of Green2Ice.