Swiss Camp and the Greenland Ice Sheet

Swiss Camp in 2007. The camp has been used as a base for researchers studying the Greenland Ice Sheet for more than 20 years.

Swiss Camp in 2007. The camp has been used as a base for researchers studying the Greenland Ice Sheet for more than 20 years.

© CIRES

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  • Swiss Camp in 2007. The camp has been used as a base for researchers studying the Greenland Ice Sheet for more than 20 years.
  • Glacier flowing on the Greenland Ice Sheet.
  • Diagram illustrating how an ice sheet gains and loses ice mass.
  • Diagram illustrating a cross-section of the Greenland Ice Sheet showing surface melt and moulins. Meltwater makes is way to the bottom of the ice sheet and and reduces friction between the ice and the bedrock.
  • Surface melt water flowing into a moulin.
  • Research team standing next to a moulin.
  • Temperatures at Swiss Camp plotted over time since 1991. A linear regression plot shows a steady increase in temperatures.
  • A linear regreassion plot through collected data shows an overall increase in total Greenland melt area since 1979.
  • Changes in Elevation over the Greenland Ice Sheet measured by the ICESat satellite. The ice sheet is gaining mass and elevation in the centre due to increased precipitation while it is thinng and losing mass at its edges. The overall mass balance for the Greenland Ice Sheet is negative (about 200 gigatons a year are being lost).
  • Greenland mass balance evolution during the first decade of the 21st century. As the second largest reservoir of freshwater on the planet after the Antarctic Ice Sheet, significant melt form the Greenland Ice Sheet has the potential to make a significant contribution to global sea level rise.
  • Retreat of Jakobshavn Glacier over the past century and a half.
  • An IPCC graph of sea level rise predictions as the 21st century progresses. The contribution of land ice (ice from glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets) to sea level rise has been increasing compared to rise due to thermal expansion. This trend is expected to continue.
  • Projected inundations due to a one-metre sea level rise in Northern Europe.
  • Konrad Steffen, Director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado.

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