Research project Tracing how Atlantic Water impacts North Greenland: THAWING

A multidisciplinary research project led by Professor Helen Coxall at the Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm University. The project investigates how inflows of relatively warm Atlantic water, transported northward by the Gulf Stream system, are affecting glaciers, fjords, sea ice and marine ecosystems along the northern coast of Greenland.

Northern Greenland hosts some of the Arctic’s most extensive and persistent pack ice, known as the Last Ice Area, as well as fjords containing floating glacier tongues that help stabilise the inland ice sheet. As the climate warms, many of these ice features are becoming increasingly vulnerable. THAWING seeks to determine the role of ocean warming, often referred to as “Atlantification”, in driving these changes.

The project combines oceanography, geophysics, marine biology and ice-sheet modelling with data from recent icebreaker expeditions, seafloor mapping, sediment cores and fossil plankton records. By analysing both modern observations and sediment archives spanning up to 120,000 years, the research team places present-day changes in a long-term climate context.
By improving understanding of how Atlantic water penetrates Arctic fjords and interacts with glaciers and sea ice, THAWING aims to clarify the processes controlling ice stability in northern Greenland and the future persistence of the Arctic’s Last Ice Area.

Read our First meeting summary futher down under "More about this project"