Intrepid explorer Dr Kate Selway takes us to Greenland
WATCH: Geophysicist, Dr Kate Selway from The University of South Australia has been undertaking an Earth imaging project with the MAGPIE research group using NCRIS enabled magnetotelluric instruments. The project aims to, ultimately, know how fast that arctic ice is melting. Video: Supplied
Have the wilderness adventures of Bear Grylls, Survivor or Alone on TV captured your imagination? If so, it’s time to change channels. Join us as we move through Dr Kate Selway’s video diary about undertaking six weeks of climate change monitoring on the Greenland ice sheet. Nothing but tents, snow machines and NCRIS enabled earth imaging instruments. Or watch all forty-five minutes of Kate’s footage. Brrr-illiant.
Like a rebounding mattress
First, Kate uses an analogy to explain how her MAGPIE team deciphers exactly how fast the ice is melting:
“The ice sheet is a huge weight sitting on the surface of the Earth. You can think of it like a person sitting on a mattress. The Earth is the mattress underneath, and it depresses underneath that massive weight sitting on top of it. When the ice melts, just like a person getting up off the mattress, the Earth rebounds as that weight is lost. And our challenge here is that we don’t know exactly how fast the earth is rebounding.
So, what we are doing is: making measurements that will cover a huge area of the Greenland ice sheet that will help us to know what the temperature and composition is really deep beneath the ice. And that will help us know how fast it will be rebounding as the ice melts.”
WATCH: Dr Kate Selway explains the science behind her team’s expedition. Image: supplied
Birds on the ice sheet
On the ninth day of the expedition, Kate explains :
‘We’ve seen a few snow sparrows and an entire flock of geese. It’s extraordinary when we’re out here in [this] vast nothingness that these birds can be flying overhead and knowing where to go. It’s really amazing to see anything alive out here.’
WATCH: Kate’s experiences on the ninth day of the expedition with great weather and wildlife. Image: supplied
Snowed under
The thirty-second day of Kate’s expedition marked the final deployment of earth imaging instruments:
‘This is our final deployment of the entire survey [and the] entire project which started back in 2019. So it’s really exciting that we’ll then have this whole coverage over Greenland. You can see it’s pretty snowed under.
We got this [Earth imaging instrument] in the ground two days ago and then we’ve been stuck here in a storm since then. It’s still pretty cold and windy now but much worse yesterday. It was difficult to even stand up yesterday. Our snow machines were totally snowed in and we had to dig them out today. So, hard work [at] minus 25 degrees. But really exciting…!’
WATCH: Kate’s explanation of being snowed under on the thirty-second day. Images: Supplied
AuScope enabled
In this project, Kate has used AuScope enabled magnetotelluric (Earth imaging) equipment. Take a look at this video by Geoscience Australia to understand how the technology works.
“Huge thanks to AuScope for funding new MT instruments that we tested in Greenland, and to Phoenix Geophysics for building such great gear. As you can see, the data quality was very exciting! We'll now finish kitting out these instruments for their new home in Antarctica, where they will help improve MT coverage over the continent.”
Kate using the AuScope and NCRIS enabled magnetelluric equipment in Greenland. Images: Supplied
WRITTEN BY
Video: Dr Kate Selway (Uni SA)
Editing: Jo Condon (AuScope)
LEARN MORE
On 27 July, 1pm AEST, Kate presented
a seminar about using geophysics to improve models for ice sheet melting
and dynamics. She spoke about her team’s recent work in Greenland.
