Glaciological investigations on ice-sheet response in South Greenland

The reaction of the world’s large ice sheets to global climate change is still in the focus of scientific debate. Recent investigations have shown pronounced thinning in the southern part of the Greenland ice sheet (Inland Ice). In order to investigate the cause of the observed thinning and to judge the sensitivity of this part of the ice sheet a combined field work, remote sensing and modelling project was designed. A glaciological transect was established in May 2001 on one of the main outlet glaciers in South Greenland (Fig. 1), and the first data are now available. In addition, the history of the glacier variations during the last 40 years has been reconstructed.