Site specific metadata:

Name of site: PROMICE Network.

The PROMICE Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet is an on-going effort to monitor changes in the mass budget of the Greenland Ice Sheet. PROMICE operates a network of monitoring sites in the ablation zone around the entire perimeter of the Greenland Ice Sheet. PROMICE provides expertise and technical know-how for affiliated projects relaying real-time data via satellite to the PROMICE database, where data are made freely available to the public through the Internet (promice.dk, jupiter.geus.dk/promiceWWW). Each site is composed by a transect of two to four automatic stations along the local altitudinal gradient.

Latitude/Longitude/Altitude: (see also the map on the next page)

Station name Project Start Date Latitude Longitude ElevationKAN_L GAP/GRASP Sep 1, 2008 67.097 -49.933 680KAN_B GAP/GRASP Apr 13, 2011 67.125 -50.183 350KAN_M GAP/GRASP Sep 2, 2008 67.066 -48.818 1270KAN_U GAP/GRASP Apr 4, 2009 67 -47.017 1850ZAK_S GlacioBasis Mar 29, 2008 74.644 -21.467 880ZAK_M GlacioBasis Mar 29, 2008 74.625 -21.376 660ZAK_T GlacioBasis May 5, 2009 74.65 -21.693 1250TAS_L PROMICE Aug 23, 2007 65.641 -38.898 270QAS_A PROMICE Aug 20, 2012 61.245 -46.734QAS_L PROMICE Aug 24, 2009 61.031 -46.848 310NUK_U PROMICE Aug 20, 2007 64.498 -49.265 1140TAS_U PROMICE Aug 15, 2007 65.701 -38.866 580NUK_L PROMICE Aug 20, 2007 64.482 -49.529 560NUK_N PROMICE Jul 25, 2010 64.946 -49.884 930THU_U PROMICE Aug 9, 2010 76.42 -68.145 770THU_L PROMICE Aug 9, 2010 76.4 -68.265 570UPE_U PROMICE Aug 17, 2009 72.891 -53.535 980UPE_L PROMICE Aug 17, 2009 72.893 -54.295 230SCO_L PROMICE Jul 21, 2008 72.229 -26.816 470SCO_U PROMICE Jul 21, 2008 72.394 -27.264 1000KPC_L PROMICE Jul 17, 2008 79.911 -24.086 380QAS_U PROMICE Aug 7, 2008 61.178 -46.817 890KPC_U PROMICE Jul 17, 2008 79.834 -25.17 870MIT SEDIMICE May 3, 2009 65.693 -37.826 460

Each red dot on the map represents a transect of 2 to 4 automatic stations on the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Blue dots represent sites with 1 to 3 stations at glaciers or ice caps detached from the Greenland Ice Sheet and operated by affiliated programmes which also deliver data to the publicly accessible PROMICE database.

Landscape type (e.g. arctic coastal, tundra, alpine…): Ablation zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Onsite technical staff: Periodic visits according to calibration schedule and maintenance needs

All-year round observations y/n: Yes, including near real-time satellite transmission year round.

Year established: 2007 (PROMICE includes some pre-existing sites which started as early as 2001)

Link to website if available: http://promice.dk, http://jupiter.geus.dk/promiceWWW

Network manager (Email):

PROMICE Programme Manager Signe Bech Andersen (siba@geus.dk) - GEUS, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland

Contact for general questions: Andreas P. Ahlstrøm (apa@geus.dk) - GEUS, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland

Contact for questions concerning the data: Dirk van As (dva@geus.dk) - GEUS, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland

Contact for questions concerning the stations and network: Michele Citterio (mcit@geus.dk) - GEUS, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland

Organisation in charge of the network: GEUS, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Copenhagen.

Other information: PROMICE is funded by the Danish Climate Assistance Programme, and is operated by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) in collaboration with the National Space Institute (DTU Space) and the Greenland Survey (ASIAQ)

Monitoring of the atmosphere:

Solid precipitation: snow depth at the stations, snow pack analyzer for automatic density and depth at selected sites

Snowfall: Sonic range sensors, snow pack analyzer for automatic density and depth sensors

Trace gases: no

Aerosols: no

UV, stratospheric ozone: no

Radiation (longwave, shortwave): incoming and outgoing shortwave and longwave radiation at all sites

Others: air pressure, temperature and humidity, wind speed and direction

Snow cover

Physical parameters: Depth, density, layering at sites visited at the end of the accumulation season, depth year round, density year round at selected sites equipped with automatic snow pack analyzer.

Chemical parameters: no

Others: snow radar transects at selected sites

Glaciers and ice caps

Mass balance (measured parameters): yes, measured at the position of the stations. Ablation is monitored automatically using the ablation meter instrument developed at GEUS, by sonic ranger, and by stakes. Winter balance from snow pits, probing and snow radar at selected sites.

Meteorology (measured parameters): air pressure, temperature and humidity, wind speed and direction, incoming and outgoing shortwave and longwave radiation at all stations

Ice flow (measured parameters): year round surface velocity by GPS at the stations, year-to-year displacement by GPS at the ablation stakes. Ice thickness measured by ice penetrating radar.

Basal water pressure (measured parameters):

Others: near surface weather and full surface energy balance at 3 automatic stations on the ice from the summit of AP Olsen Ice Cap to close to the terminus, ice temperature profile, surface albedo of snow and ice, ice thickness from ground based and airborne radar, photographic monitoring of glacier dammed lake and related glacier lake outburst floods.

Sea ice

Mass balance (measured parameters): not relevant – all stations on land ice

Meteorology:

Snow on ice (measured parameters):

Ice chemistry (measured parameters):

Others:

Permafrost

Borehole measurements (measured parameters): not relevant – all stations on land ice

Meteorology:

Snow on ground (measured parameters):

Active layer thickness (measured parameters):

GST:

Others:

Ice sheet

Mass balance (measured parameters): yes, measured at the position of the stations. Ablation is monitored automatically using the ablation meter instrument developed at GEUS, by sonic ranger, and by stakes. Winter balance from snow pits at sites visited at end of accumulation season.

Meteorology (measured parameters): air pressure, temperature and humidity, wind speed and direction, incoming and outgoing shortwave and longwave radiation at all stations

Snow on ice (measured parameters): snow depth at all sites, automatic snow density at selected sites

Ice chemistry (measured parameters):

Others: ice velocity from GPS year round at the stations and at selected outlet glaciers, ice temperature profile to 10 m at all stations

Other measurements (hydrological, ecological, oceanographic, etc)

Hydrology (measured parameters): three long-term hydrological series of river discharge at selected catchments with large relative shares of meltwater, in collaboration with ASIAQ, Greenland Survey

Ecology (measured parameters):

Oceanography (measured parameters): Iceberg discharge and subaqueous melt from ice sheet outlet glaciers based on surface velocity monitoring and the flux-gate concept

Other thematic linkages: Greenland contribution to global sea level rise, impact of freshwater fluxes into the North Atlantic Ocean, calving processes and dynamics of marine terminating outlet glaciers, mass loss of individual glaciers and ice caps surrounding the ice sheet, processes and impact of meltwater refreezing, albedo feedbacks, economic aspects of current and projected mass balance of Greenland land

ice: hydropower potential of selected catchments, glaciological feasibility of mining development projects, etc.

Linkages to satellite data (describe validation programs, applications of satellite data, etc.)

Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data for surface velocity retrieval; Landsat, ASTER and aerostereophotogrammetry data for mapping of ice margin position; MODIS visible and thermal data for surface albedo and surface temperature; repeated airborne lidar and ice penetrating radar complete perimeter of the Greenland Ice Sheet (2007, 2011) for defining flux gates and tracking surface elevation changes; comparison of in-situ mass balance observations, remote sensing estimates of mass loss (GRACE) and geometry changes (ICESat, CryoSat), and GPS observations of vertical velocity fields (G-NET)

Participation in international monitoring programmes such as GAW, GTN-G, GTN-P, ….

PROMICE delivers near-real time observational data directly to the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) for further for re-distribution to the WMO, mass balance data to the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), vector maps of ice sheet and glacier extent to the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) and campaign datasets to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Through WGMS, GLIMS and NSIDC we deliver to the Global Terrestrial Network for Glaciers (GTN-G) authorized under the Global Climate/Terrestrial Observing System (GCOS, GTOS) in support of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).