New Arctic research collaboration in the field – in NE Greenland Published 07.03.2012

In these days, as the daylight and the spring return to the northernmost parts of the Globe, a group of the world’s leading climate scientists are also on their way to the northern Arctic – more specifically the North-East Greenland. The idea is to gather scientists from many different disciplines in the field at the same time and place in order to collectively and interactively research a number of conditions to bring new knowledge of factors that influence the global climate and the subsequent effects of the climate changes.

The field campaign, which is to be carried out at Young Sund and Scoresby Sund will last 2-3 months and is also the launch of a new collaboration among the climate research centres in Greenland, Canada and Denmark called the “Arctic Science Partnership”.

The partnership and the field campaign is furthermore a part of the realization of “Kingdom of Denmark Strategy for the Arctic 2011 – 2020” which was accepted by Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands in 2011 concerning a joint arctic strategy for the Arctic area. The strategy describes the kingdom’s most important possibilities and challenges in the Arctic as they look today and the near future as well as the common political objectives. Greenland Climate Research Centre (GCRC) in Nuuk is a central player in both the strategy and the regional collaboration with Canada.

As soon as in 2010 GCRC initiated a formal collaboration with the University of Manitoba (UoM) and in 2011 steps were taken to establish a new “Centre for Arctic Research” at Aarhus Universitet (AU) with close relation to both GCRC and UoM. In this way a large number of the world’s leading scientists in climate research in the Arctic are gathered, creating the basis for a strongly integrated climate research collaboration among Greenland, Canada and Denmark concerning almost a third of the Arctic region. . The cooperation ”Arctic Science Partnership” will focus on climate, cryosphere, ecosystem and human interactions.

The partnership intends in the future to carry out similar joint field activities on various locations in the Arctic.

Placing measuring equipment below the sea ice. Photo: Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen

Ice drilling. Photo: Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen