Sermilik station
Coordinates: 65 ° 41 ′ N , 37 ° 55 ′ W
The sermilik station is a glaciological research station on to Greenland belonging Ammassalik Island . It is run by the Department of Geography at the University of Copenhagen .
location
The station is located on the west coast of Ammassalik Island in East Greenland on the banks of the Sermilik fjord , about 15 km northwest of the town of Tasiilaq with over 2000 inhabitants. Directly to the east is the Mittivakkat (Mitdluagkat) glacier, a local ice cap .
history
In 1933, the glaciers on Ammassalik Island were subjected to a scientific inventory for the first time by Knud Rasmussen's last expedition, the 7th Thule Expedition . In the International Geophysical Year 1957 , the Mittivakkat was one of the Danish research objects. At that time it had withdrawn 600 m from 1933. In 1970 the Sermilik station was established as the basis for glaciological, hydrological and geomorphological investigations of the Mittivakkat. After a working group for arctic physical geography had been formed at the Institute for Geography at the University of Copenhagen in 1990, an automatic weather station was installed in 1993 on a nunatak of the glacier at an altitude of 515 m in order to research the glacier climate. It was followed by a second station on the coast in 1997 and a third at a height of 200 m in 2009.
description
The main building of the research station is a 60 m² wooden house with three living rooms, a dining room, a lounge, a kitchen, a toilet and a pantry. A second, non-insulated building of 50 m² contains a workshop, a storage room with a rubber dinghy and accommodation for four people. The fuel and other equipment are stored in another building. There is a 6 m² hut at the weather station at a height of 515 m. In total, the station can accommodate six to ten researchers. A tent camp for students will also be set up in summer.
climate
There is an arctic marine climate in the vicinity of the station, which is currently subject to major changes. The global warming leads to melting of the ice sheet and the local glacier. The increasing amounts of ice due to increased calving of the glaciers influence the local climate on Sermilik.
The mean annual temperature is −1.7 ° C, the mean temperature in January –7.5 ° C and in July 6.4 ° C. The annual rainfall averages 984 mm. There are an average of 120 days with precipitation and 1374 hours of sunshine per year.
research
A year-round monitoring program of basic climate data and the local climate gradient in the drainage basin of the Mittivakkat glacier is carried out at the station. The main focus is on the mass balance of the glacier, sediment transport and processes that shape the landscape. On the basis of the data series obtained since the early 1990s, models have been developed that can be used to predict the effects of climate change on the development of glaciers.
See also
Web links
- Sermilik Station on the INTERACT project homepage
- Homepage of the Sermilik station