NOW – NOise of thaW

Havniveaustigning fra afsmeltning af gletsjere og risiko for landskab ustabilitet som følge af permafrost degradering over store dele af Arktis viser, at klimaforandringer har stor betydning både lokalt, regionalt og globalt. Formålet med NOW projektet er at undersøge potentialet for at bygge bro mellem vores igangværende forskning i klima og i geologi ved at fokusere på klima-påvirket processer som finder sted både ved og under jordens overfladen, og som er vigtige i et klimatilpasning perspektiv.

Sea level rise from melting of glacier and the outlook of higher landscape instability as a consequence of permafrost degradation over large parts of the Arctic show that climate change has significant impacts at both the local, regional and global scales. The aim of the NOW project is to investigate the potential insight from linking currently ongoing research in climate and in geology, by focusing on processes sensitive to climate that take place at and below the surface and are important in a climate adaptation context.

Seismic methods make it possible to listen year-round to such noise and signal sources as meltwater runoff, including at the glacier bed, glacial lake outburst floods, and rockfalls. The Now project will cast light on the dynamic response of the landscape to the thawing of the active layer above permafrost in summer and to to the increased availability of surface waters after rainfalls or melting of snow and ice.

The project will install a total of six open-hardware seismic recorders each with four channels, installed close to existing climate stations on the Greenland ice sheet (PROMICE), glaciers (GEM GlacioBasis) and ice-free mountain slopes (GEUS landslide investigations). By working close to the signal sources of interest, we will be able to record even the weak signals from small local events that we need in order to develop a quantitative process understanding.

The researchers participating in the NOW project come from three GEUS departements (Glaciology and Climate, Geophysics, Petrology and Economic Geology), from the Center for Permafrost (CENPERM) at Copenhagen University, from Mertl Research GmbH (Austria) and from University of Oklahoma (USA).