NASA EO-1 Satellite Sees Flooding in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland (IMAGE)
Caption
Greenland has been a recurring source of headlines in July 2012, with the calving of a new iceberg off the Petermann Glacier and surface melting across nearly all of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Now there are new satellite images of flooding in Kangerlussuaq, a major transportation hub. Located in southwestern Greenland roughly 125 kilometers (75 miles) from the coast, Kangerlussuaq, or Kanger, hosts one of the island’s busiest commercial airports and is a key departure point for research flights, including the NASA IceBridge program. Near the airport, the Watson River flows through town. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite observed the flooded river on July 12, 2012. On July 12, river levels are discernibly higher throughout the image; downstream from Kangerlussuaq, braided channels have merged into a single water body. In both images, the river’s light blue-green-gray color likely results from glacial flour suspended in the water. A bridge spans the river at a narrow point southeast of the airport, and allegedly dates from the 1950s. Jason Box of the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University remarked: “In previous high-melt years, I suspected the bridge’s years were numbered.” Having recently returned from a trip to Greenland, Box noted an increase in the intensity of spring and summer melt over the past dozen years. Around the same time that ALI captured the July 12 image, observers on the ground marveled at the high water around the bridge, which reportedly “ate a big loader tractor like candy.” By July 21, flood waters had washed out parts of the bridge, according to video footage published by The Guardian. Related story: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/greenland-melt.html
Credit
NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using Advanced Land Imager data from the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Michon Scott
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