Scientists sail for Greenland to study glacier melt risk

HARWICH, England — An international team of around 80 scientists and crew will set sail on the polar research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough for Greenland this week to investigate whether the island's rapidly melting glaciers could disrupt a major Atlantic Ocean current system and, with it, Europe's climate.

The five- to six-week mission departs Britain after the country and Western Europe experienced their warmest June on record, an event that disrupted power supplies, shut down schools, and caused excess deaths.

"The heat waves in the UK and in Europe the last few months have really driven home that it's difficult for us to adapt to even quite small changes in our climate," Kelly Hogan, a marine geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) which is leading the mission, told Reuters in an interview on board the vessel.

The expedition is part of a £20 million project called GIANT (Greenland Ice sheet to AtlaNtic Tipping points), which seeks to understand how glaciers melt and break into the ocean and the impact this has.

Scientists are concerned that the melting freshwater could disrupt a system of rotating ocean currents that helps regulate Europe’s climate, which could lead to more extreme weather and rising sea levels.

Ship Captain Matt Neill, who made his first trip to Antarctica as a cadet with BAS in 2011, said he has already witnessed firsthand the impact of the world's changing climate.

"Lots of the glaciers are all receding very, very quickly, and much more than you would think," Neill said. "So it's even more important than ever during these very dynamic times that we are out there and gathering the data and improving the models."

Boaty McBoatface

Officially, the ship is named after the veteran naturalist David Attenborough, but to many Britons, it will always be known as "Boaty McBoatface," after that suggestion topped a public poll to name the vessel in 2016.

The name was instead given to a high-tech submersible on the vessel. It will dive 1,500 meters below the glacier melange—a mixture of sea ice and snow that builds up where the glacier meets the sea—mapping its geometry and how it influences the glacier.

"It's going to be collecting a lot of data that's never really been collected before," said Sam Smith, an operations engineer at the National Oceanography Centre.

Data collected from the mission will feed into next-generation climate models and an early-warning system for glacier collapse. -Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama/Reuters