Project Highlights 2005 - Summit Camp Survey, Greenland

Several surveying tasks were completed at Summit Camp, a research station at the highest point of the Greenland ice sheet. The camp layout and infrastructure had changed significantly since the last UNAVCO survey in 2003, so the camp was re-surveyed and the camp plan drawing was updated to reflect the current layout.

Two topographic surveys of the snow levels in and around the camp were also performed using snowmobile-mounted GPS systems. The first topographic survey was done to establish the baseline snow level on a fine grid within the immediate camp perimeter. This survey will be used in combination with future topographic surveys to assess the effectiveness of various measures intended to reduce drifting. The second topographic survey was an experiment to assess the feasibility of using snowmobile-mounted GPS to monitor changes in snow height within a snow accumulation study area near the camp. If this technique can replace the current "manual" accumulation measurements, these measurements can be performed much more rapidly and will yield a finer spatial resolution of accumulation in the study area. The following article details the fastest moving glacier in the world, the Kangerdlugssuaq. Greenland glacier races to ocean