BBC Focus - 09.2019

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Surface

tension

INGLEFIELD FJORD,
GREENLAND

Climate scientist Steen
Olsen took this photo as he
travelled across sea ice in
Greenland to retrieve
instruments in a remote
weather station. The ice,
hardened by the long
winter, has very few
cracks. So, when the
surface begins to melt,
there is nowhere for the
water to drain and it
collects as a huge lake atop
the fjord. Olsen makes this
journey every year, in early
June, at a time when the ice
is usually still intact. This
year, however, Greenland
experienced extreme
temperatures.
“This was an unusually
early melt event,” says
Olsen. “The ice completely
broke up just a few days
aer this photo. We have
recorded the date that the
ice breaks up for 100 years,
and it has only happened
earlier than this once.”
Next year, Olsen will
make the same journey. He
hopes that climate change
does not push the melting
of the sea ice any earlier.

STEFFENMOLSEN/DMI

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