Day Four - Sunday, May 6, 2007
Ice Cap and Kellyville, Greenland
We traveled inland about 25 km to the ice cap today. There will be photos and videos posted to share, but these images cannot do justice to the power and beauty of the glaciers, ice cap, and moraines.
To give you an idea of the size of the ice cap, our driver made this comparison. He told us that you could give EVERYONE in the world an ice cube 80m on each side using the ice contained in this ice cap. And, imagine what changes there would be if that much ice melted. Keep in mind, Antarctica has about 10 times more ice than Greenland.
Later, we traveled to Kellyville, the incoherent radar facility that was moved from Alaska to Greenland. This facility is self-sufficient … it has its own generator … its own power … its own workshop … its own living space. Simplified, this radar facility sends microwaves into the ionosphere. Some of these waves are reflected by electrons and other particles in the ionosphere, causing them to bounce back and be recorded at this site. A variety of instruments are used here … including LIDAR and spectographs. We’ll find out more when we interview John Kelly … yes, that’s where the name Kellyville came from.