Our 3Bmeteo team has traveled to Greenland in order to verify the climate changes that are happening the last few years and the influence that can have on our planet and daily life. A part of our team transferred to Greenland for the project, which began on 16th June and ended on 29th June.
Due to the work of the operators and meteorologists, the testimonies on the melting of the ice had been collected. The last data are truly alarming: since the end of the 1990s, Greenland’s ice layer has lost mass not only due to surface melting, but also due to the retreat of the ice. These processes have been greatly accelerated by the increase in heat absorption induced by the more exposed deep ice, which is darker than the superficial one, but also by the ice melting which is in contact with the sea, which has become warmer on average the last few years.
According to NASA data, from 2002 to 2022 about 5 trillion tons of glacial mass were lost, with a melting rate up to 6-7 times faster than 25 years ago. According to an estimate, if all of Greenland’s ice was melted, sea levels would rise by about 7.4 meters. Despite being the second largest glacial area in the world, with its 1.7 million square km, Greenland is undergoing significant changes and it is therefore more important than ever to analyze and study the flows of melt water within the cap. The results of these studies will be fundamental to evaluate and study the processes of adaptation to change in the future, especially for coastal cities.
Team’s first stage of the exhibition to Ilulissat: Ilulissat represents the first stage of this important expedition which includes several appointments in this area for the next three days, meetings with local natives, in search of Greenland’s whales, up to to visit the suggestive Eqi glacier, the point where the Greenland’s Ice Cap reaches the sea. Located about 80 km north of Ilulissat, the numerous collapses and detachments of ice on the marine waters of this glacier can be observed.
First day of climatic research: First strong emotions already occurred during the flight over the Greenlandic cap, with expanses of glittering ice interspersed with gullies, crevasses, fjords and angular mountains, as evidenced by the first images that arrived in the editorial office to accompany this article. Not only terrestrial ice but also sea ice, with a myriad of floating icebergs like a sort of constellation facing the coast. The weather was colder than usual with temperatures near 1-2°C and even some snowflakes.
Sun even at night: the overnight stay in Greenland was really promising as in this period it never gets dark even in the middle of the night and is called ‘Midnight Sun’, whose maximum expression we find in this period near the summer solstice. It follows a spectacular time lapse of the Midnight Sun in Ilulissat, the third largest village in Greenland. The video shows the ‘Midnight Sun’ from 8pm to 2.30am the following morning. In this period of the year, specially between 21th of May and 24th of July, the sun never sets on a large part of Greenland.
