SPI-GreenFjord

Motivation

‍Monitoring fjord systems is challenging due to their remoteness and inclement weather during the winter months. This means that observations are scarce, particularly for a full seasonal cycle (spring, summer, autumn, winter). Further, these measurements are seldom understood in their greater context and how they influence, or may be influenced, by measurements from other spheres (Figure 1).

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The GreenFjord project aims to close this gap for the Southwest Greenland region (Figure 2). However, given that the practical challenges still exist, a broader approach is required that is able to capture the greater context of the region, both now, and in the past.

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Proposed Approach / Solution

‍The SDSC will provide the large-scale and historical context by retrieving the required data and computing the the long-term trends for relevant variables, e.g., sea surface temperature, oceanic chlorophyll concentration, changes in photosynthetic growth on land (NDVI), ice cover, and river plumes. Some examples include:

• computing long-term trends of climatic variables (e.g., air temperature at 2 metre height) from ERA5, sea surface temperature, and vegetation changes (NDVI from MODIS satellites),
• mapping river catchment properties (e.g., area, mean slope, aspect, land cover types, geological formations),
• tracking glacier retreat for the SW Greenland area over the last three decades with Landsat missions,
• tracking river plume and glacial outwash tidal delta area changes with Landsat and Sentinel-2 missions.

Impact

‍A better understanding of a sensitive ecosystem in a region that is changing faster than the rest of the planet. In a very practical way, we aim to provide a way for locals to track, access, and understand the changes in their environment in the broader context of the last 20 years.