Flight mechanic, David Fuller (left), is working with a local worker to move a Gulfstream III NASA during a pre-flight inspection before a flight to support the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) research mission. , March 12, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq, Greenland, June 24, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Pilot Commander Tom Parent inspects the exterior of a NASA Gulfstream III during a preflight inspection of the aircraft prior to a flight to support the Oceans Melting Greenland Research Mission (OMG) ), March 12, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Ron Muellerschoen, radar engineer, monitors data collection in a NASA Gulfstream III flying over Greenland to measure the loss of the country's ice cap as part of the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) research mission, 12 March 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq, Greenland, June 18, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Radar engineer Ron Muellerschoen (left), radar engineer Tim Miller (C), and pilot-in-chief Tom Parent discuss issues related to NASA's Gulfstream III in-flight autopilot system over Greenland to measure ice loss Greenland Research Mission (OMG), March 13, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Aircraft mechanic, David Fuller, inspects a NASA Gulfstream III during a pre-flight inspection before a flight to support the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) research mission, March 12, 2018 REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
A glacial flow is observed through the window of a NASA Gulfstream III flight to support the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) search mission over the east coast of Greenland on March 13, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Eric Ianson, director of NASA's Earth Science Flight Programs, looks at Greenland's icecap inside a NASA Gulfstream III flying over Greenland to measure the loss of the ice cap of March 13th. , 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Safety officer Brian Rougeux uses a drill to install scientific instrument antennas that will be left on the Helheim Glacier, near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 19, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
The GPS tracking equipment is left at the top of the Helheim Glacier, near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 19, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Oceanographer David Holland (C) eats with Denise Holland (left), safety officer Brian Rougeux and student Febin Magar (R) in their science camp on the glacier side. Helheim near Tasiilaq, Greenland, June 19, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
An ice-cream is seen from the window during a NASA flight to support the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) search mission over the east coast of Greenland on March 13, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
An aerial photograph of the science camp of the oceanographer David Holland on the flank of the Helheim Glacier near Tasiilaq, Greenland, June 20, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Ponds of meltwater are observed at the top of the Helheim Glacier near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 19, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Ponds of meltwater are observed at the top of the Helheim Glacier near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 19, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
An ice terminal is seen from the window during a NASA flight to support the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) research mission over the east coast of Greenland on March 13, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Oceanographer David Holland is working with student Febin Magar to inspect a seismograph in their science camp located on the flank of the Helheim Glacier, near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 20, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Safety officer Brian Rougeux is wearing a piece of radar dome while he was working at a science camp on the Helheim Glacier side, near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 20, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Oceanographer David Holland repairs a broken GPS module in his research camp over the Helheim Glacier, near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 20, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
The student Febin Magar is watching a search wood burning in a research camp on the flank of the Helheim Glacier near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 20, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Safety Officer Brian Rougeux is working on the construction of a semi-permanent structure at a science camp on the Helheim Glacier side, near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 20, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Student Febin Magar watches safety officer Brian Rougeux burn the wood scraps while he was working in a science camp on the Helheim Glacier side near Tasiilaq, Greenland, the United States. June 20, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Safety officer Brian Rougeux is working with a student, Febin Magar, to assemble a radar dome while he was working in a science camp on the flank of the Helheim Glacier, near Tasiilaq, Greenland. , June 20, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Safety Officer Brian Rougeux is working on the construction of a semi-permanent structure at a science camp on the Helheim Glacier side, near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 20, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
A large crevice forms near the calving front of the Helheim Glacier near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 22, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Denise Holland prepares a meal at a science camp on the Helheim Glacier side, near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 22, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Tabular icebergs float in Sermilik Fiord after a large calving event at the Helheim Glacier near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 23, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Safety officer Brian Rougeux undoes the equipment to inspect him while he was working in a science camp on the flank of the Helheim Glacier near Tasiilaq, Greenland, the United States. June 22, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
The sun illuminates the Helheim Glacier near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 22, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
Tabular icebergs float in the Sermilik Fiord after a large calving event at the Helheim Glacier near Tasiilaq, Greenland, on June 23, 2018. This part between the glacier front and open ocean is known as name of "melange". and icebergs piled up on their way to a fjord and later the ocean. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq, Greenland, June 24, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq, Greenland, June 24, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq, Greenland, June 24, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson SEARCH "JACKSON GREENLAND" FOR THIS STORY. "LARGER IMAGE" SEARCH FOR ALL STORIES.
An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq, Greenland, June 24, 2018. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson SEARCH "JACKSON GREENLAND" FOR THIS STORY. "LARGER IMAGE" SEARCH FOR ALL STORIES.
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TASILLAQ, Greenland, Sept. 19 (Reuters) – Perched on a cliff above the Helheim Glacier in Greenland, I tried calling my wife in New York on a satellite phone. Before I could leave a message, an explosion broke the arctic silence.
More explosions followed.
I crossed a muddy tundra up to a video camera on a tripod overlooking the glacier and ripped off the trash bag that I had used to protect it. I hit the record as fast as possible.
The slamming sounds turned into a low rumble. Over the next half-hour, the ice broke up and a four-mile-wide piece swung into the sea during a process called calving – rarely seen on this scale.
As a Reuters photographer, I captured volcanoes erupting, after hurricanes and tornadoes, and the war, but I never felt so small. This is a moving end to a multi-month project on climate change in Greenland.
The idea was to follow scientists doing climate research. They had the computational power to understand global warming for only a few decades, and the numbers are sobering. But where do the data come from?
To find out, we turned to a team of scientists leaving Iceland and affiliated with a project of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) entitled Oceans Melting Greenland. They aim to understand how the warming of the oceans melts the ice of the island from below.
We also spent time with the New York University's David Holland oceanographer, who was involved in a separate research project and also attended the calving of the Helheim Glacier.
I realized the magnitude of this work aboard a NASA research aircraft with senior researcher Joshua Willis and other scientists, at 12,000 feet above sea level. , in the seemingly infinite white horizon of the Greenlandic ice cap.
The plane sank and buckled over the steep cliffs and rock faces of East Greenland that are slowly crushed to dust by huge glaciers.
I joined the NASA team for a week in March in Keflavik, Iceland. Every day we took off ice tracks and flew over the coast of Greenland. Scientists Tim Miller, Ron Muellerschoen and David Austerberry collected on their computers a stream of seemingly endless numbers, symbols and letters from radar data on glacial formations.
Holland, in New York, is studying Helheim and another glacier called Jakobshavn for more than a decade.
In June, I went to see the Helheim Glacier, near the coastal village of Tasiilaq, which has about 2,000 inhabitants. It has been remarkably successful in becoming a tourist destination, a feat with only two hotels, which sometimes serve as whale meat.
Transportation here is limited to the boat or helicopter in the summer and dog sledding in the winter. In summer, the sun goes down only a few hours a day.
Holland collected data on seismic activity, temperature and wind, as well as accelerated images.
For journalists and scientists, climate change is hard to document. It occurs most often imperceptibly – a temperature increase of one-tenth of a degree, a few inches of rain less, an ice cap that melts slowly.
That's why it was so overwhelming to watch billions of tons of ice collapse at all once. Suddenly, he did not feel like a small problem or a distant problem. (Report by Lucas Jackson in Greenland Editing by Brian Thevenot)
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