The first field season in Greenland is officially here. In about an hour we will pack up our rental SUV and drive out to Newburgh, New York to the Stewart Air National Guard base. Monday morning we board a C-17 from the 105th Air Lift Wing of the Air National Guard. The C-17 will fly us to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. From there we spend a day getting ready to fly out to the first field site on the Greenland Ice Sheet. To access the first site we will use a Twin Otter aircraft similar to the one on the left.
From there we overnight in Ilulissat and then Qaarsut while we access the Disko Bay and Nussuaq sites via A-Star helicopter.
The complete itinerary is scheduled to look something like this:
Monday April 14: Fly Air National Guard C-17 to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Stay at KISS (Kangerlussuaq International Science Support)
Tuesday April 15: at KISS-prep for Twin Otter flight
Wednesday April 16: First field day: Twin Otter to Greenland Ice Sheet site #1. Fly to Illulissat.
Thursday April 17: Second field day: Twin Otter back to GrIS site #2. Return to Ilulissat
Friday April 18: Down day in Ilulissat
Saturday April 19: Third field day: Helicopter to Disko Island site. Return to Ilulissat.
Sunday April 20: Happy Easter; down day
Monday April 21: Patriot’s Day-Marathon Monday back home; Fourth field day: Helicopter to Disko Island site. To Qaarsut for night.
Tuesday/Wednesday April 22/23: Fifth and sixth field days: Helicopter to Nussuaq sites.
Thursday April 24: back up day to reach Nussuaq sites; otherwise return to Ilulissat and Matt B and Ashley fly Air Greenland to Kangerlussuaq; rest of team overnights in Ilulissat
Friday April 25: rest of team to Kangerlussuaq
Saturday/Sunday April 26/27: Kangerlussuaq
Monday April 28: return to US
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