Headed to Summit!

Back in Greenland again, this time headed to Summit for the first time in several years.  It will be nice to be back up there!  I will have about 7 days up at Summit, and in that time we will complete a strain survey, measuring the locations of poles that my student Gifford planted and surveyed about a year ago, to determine ice motion in the vicinity of the station, which is just off about 30 km to the West of the topographic summit of the ice sheet.  It's generally moving around 2 meters to the West each year, but what I'm interested in is how different that motion is over the space of a few tens of kilometers, so effectively how much stretching is happening.  In the event that we finish this survey quickly, we have a few side projects to work on as well, which I'll post about if/when we get to them.  For now, we're in Kangerlussuaq, on the West coast, having flown on an Air National Guard LC-130 from upstate new york. 

Our LC-130 aircraft, waiting on the tarmac.  With good weather and a little luck, they will take us to Summit tomorrow!

While in town, I've had the opportunity to explore around a bit by bicycle, and get a look at the scenery...
 

Hunting is a big part of the local community; here a hunter is drying muskox hides from this season's hunt.

Hopefully my next post will be from Summit.  Fingers crossed!  (I feel like I type that a lot in this blog...)