17th September
Glacier mass balance team from Asiaq: Alexandra Messerli, Kirsty Langley, Karoline N. Nilsson and visiting PhD student Alberto Mariani and Kieran Baxter
We were greeted by a crisp, sunny September morning, a rarity when carrying out the autumn mass balance fieldwork which is usually subject to numerous weather delays. This trip concluded our mass balance measurements for 2025 as part of the GEM programme. We performed our annual autumn mass balance survey by measuring a network of 11 stakes and flying a UAV survey. The UAV survey allows us to generate a high-resolution elevation model that provides a distributed estimate of the glacier mass loss and forms the foundation of the geodetic mass balance work in WP3. Some of the mass balance stakes had unfortunately melted out so we needed to replace them the next day.
Installing new GNSS bolt
This year we also installed a new GNSS base station bolt in a more accessible location than our existing one. The old bolt was drilled many years ago and was close to the glacier margin, however after the many years of melt this bolt has become much harder to reach as the glacier surface has lowered so much making it a difficult scramble up to access the bolt. We hope our new bolt location will be easy to access for some years to come.
Time lapse camera maintenance
In addition to the work on the glacier we also have a time lapse camera that helps us to monitor snow conditions on the glacier. Each visit to the glacier we go and retrieve the data, and replace the SD card, and maintain it by checking the battery health and checking the camera focus.
18th September
Field Team from Asiaq: Alexandra Messerli, Kirsty Langley, Dorthe Petersen, along with visiting PhD student Alberto Mariani and Kieran Baxter
Installation of a new pressure transducer
A second (and unprecedented) good weather day allowed us to get out and install pressure transducers in the lake next to the glacier on top of the Qassinnguit mountain in Kobbefjord just south of Nuuk. The measurements from the pressure transducers will show us when and how much snow fall we have on the top of the mountain in winter, when the snow melts in spring and when it rains in summer. This new monitoring of the lake will supplement the measurements from the climate stations on the glacier and in the Kobbefjord valley. The Kobbefjord data will help us understand the spatial variation of climate and evaluate the output from regional climate models.
