Southeast greenland, between approximately 60-68ON, contains 69 major tidewater glaciers that generally discharge into long, deep fjords covered by sea ICE from fall to spring. These systems are…

This is a $587,279 grant awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center to the University of Washington (UW) to study glaciers, sea ice, and polar bears in southeast Greenland. The work will provide the first detailed characterization of glacier behavior in this region, including changes in terminus position, calving patterns, and interaction with the surrounding environment. This data will then be used to understand the relationship between the physical environment and the local polar bear subpopulation. The project draws on multiple NASA data sources, including the MEASURES program, Landsat 8 imagery, and the Operation IceBridge program. There is no set-aside designation for this award. As a leading research university, UW has extensive experience providing scientific research services to federal agencies through both prime contracts and subcontracts.

Southeast greenland, between approximately 60-68ON, contains 69 major tidewater glaciers that generally discharge into long, deep fjords covered by sea ICE from fall to spring. These systems are undergoing rapid changes with a broad degree of spatial and temporal variability that is not well documented. Little is known about the intra-annual variability in southeast greenland glacier terminus position, calving patterns, and the interaction between the glacier, glacial m lange and fjord sea ICE. Addressing this GAP in our knowledge is important from a glaciological perspective, and because the area is a specialized productive ecosystem. In particular, southeast greenland is host to a subpopulation of polar bears that is resident at glacier fronts year-round, hunting for seals on the floating ICE m lange and traveling inland on the glaciers themselves to reach adjoining fjords. Our project will answer key questions about southeast greenland glaciers, glacier-derived ICE, and fjord sea ICE. We will then use this information to link these physical characteristics of the environment to the behavioral patterns of the regional polar bear subpopulation. We will provide the first detailed characterization of southeast greenland glaciers at a roughly weekly resolution, including glacier advance and retreat time series, ICE discharge, ICE m lange concentration and extent, and metrics of sea ICE break-up, extent, and freeze-up. We will make use of multiple data sources including the NASA measures program (making earth system data records for use in research environments), landsat 8 optical imagery, sea-ICE concentration from satellite passive microwave data, bathymetry from NASA s oceans melting greenland program, data from NASA s operation icebridge acquired over the glaciers of southeast greenland, and surface air temperature from coastal weather stations and from NASA s merra-2 reanalysis product. Finally, we will use movement data acquired by satellite telemetry of more than 100 polar bears collared in southeast greenland from 2015 to 2017 to establish spatial habitat models for bears at glacier fronts and to quantify which features of glaciers are important to maintaining the subpopulation. The interdisciplinary nature of this science team enables the cross linkages between glaciology, sea ICE, and ecology. This work develops important cryospheric time series that will allow for an improved understanding of glacier/fjord interactions in a less-studied region of greenland and at the same time elucidates the relationship between the physical environment and the resident polar bear subpopulation.