Active Source Greenland Ice Seismic Experiment near Helheim Glacier, Greenland, 2015-2016

• Main Author: Nicholas Schmerr
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2018
• Subjects: active; source; firn; SEGY; aquifer; seismic; refraction; cryoseismology; Greenland; glacier; Ice Sheet; Sermilik
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/urn:uuid:bb703252-b251-4a4d-b284-1506f64ac3b6

In spring of 2011, a perennial storage of water was observed in the firn of the southeastern Greenland ice sheet, a region of both high snow accumulation and high melt. This aquifer is created through percolation of surface meltwater downward through the firn, saturating the pore space above the ice-firn transition. The aquifer may play a significant role in sea level rise through storage or draining freshwater into the ocean, and the goal of our experiment was to quantify the volume of water that is stored in the aquifer system. The Greenland Ice Seismic Experiment (GreenISE) is to investigate the structure of this perennial firn aquifer found near the surface of the Greenland ice sheet. The experiment uses high frequency active source refraction seismology to probe the hydrology and structure of the uppermost firn and ice layers of the ice sheet. Locations were visited in two years to determine the variation in hydrologic setting over the Greenland summer and characterize the role of surface melting processes in ice sheets. This dataset is permanently archived as an assembled dataset at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology Data Management System, Assembed Dataset 14-064. The data can be accessed at the following link: http://ds.iris.edu/mda2/14-064/