Main tasks within ice2sea: Work Package Leader (W3), involvement in W2 and W3
Description of institution: The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, GEUS, is a research and advisory institute in the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy. The survey also operates in the private sector. The staff numbers a total of about 350 full time specialists, technicians and administrative staff. Approximately 200 hold PhD or MSc degrees. GEUS’ overall mission is to provide, to use, and to disseminate knowledge of geological materials, processes and relations that is important for the use and protection of geological resources in Denmark and Greenland. Part of this mission is to support administrative and legislative work in Danish Ministries and the Greenland Home Rule Authority, by providing state-of-the-art geoscientific knowledge of international standard. GEUS’ main tasks are geological mapping, data collection and storage, to carry out research projects, to give advice, and to disseminate geoscientific knowledge. The survey’s annual turnover is approximately 30 million Euro. Governmental appropriations comprise to ca. 60-65 % while other public funding, mainly originating from Danish and international research programmes and commercial consulting work, account for the remaining ca. 35-40 %. GEUS has carried out extensive field programmes in Greenland for more than 60 years and heads the National Monitoring Programme for the Greenland Ice Sheet. As a government funded research institute, GEUS has accounting procedures that meet EU requirements and has identified an EU-specialized accountant to help with financial management of EU projects.
Department name: Department of Quaternary Research
Staff member: Dr. Andreas P. Ahlstrøm
Profile of staff member: APA has worked as a glaciologist since 1999 and is now a Principal Investigator at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, where he leads the Monitoring Programme for the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) as well as numerous other scientific, monitoring and commercial projects in Greenland within the field of glaciology. APA heads the glaciology group at GEUS which covers remote sensing, field observations and modelling of the Greenland ice sheet. APA has led a number of field campaigns in Greenland and has acted as a science consultant on an Antarctic mass balance programme. His research is focussed on processes at ice sheet margins, with emphasis on the Greenland ice sheet. He is head of the Regional GLIMS center for Greenland, Chairman of the International Arctic Science Committee’s Working Group on Arctic Glaciology (IASC-WAG), and part of the Climate Expert Group of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) under the Arctic Council.
Selected references:
Ahlstrøm, A.P., C.E. Bøggild, O.B. Olesen, D. Petersen, J.J. Mohr (2007): ’Mass balance of the Amitsulôq ice cap, West Greenland’, IAHS Red Book, 318, 107–115.
Fausto, R.S., C. Mayer, A.P. Ahlstrøm (2007): ‘Surface type and melt area study of the Greenland ice sheet using MODIS data from 2000-2005’, Annals of Glaciology, 46, 35–42.
Ahlstrøm, A.P., J.J. Mohr, N. Reeh, E.L. Christensen, R.LeB. Hooke (2005): ‘Controls on the basal water pressure in subglacial channels near the margin of the Greenland ice sheet’, Journal of Glaciology, 51(174), 443–450.
Bøggild, C.E., O.B. Olesen, A.P. Ahlstrøm, P. Jørgensen (2005): ‘Automatic glacier ablation measurements using pressure sensors’, Journal of Glaciology, 50(169), 303–304.
Ahlstrøm, A.P., C.E. Bøggild, J.J. Mohr, N. Reeh, E.L. Christensen, O.B. Olesen, K. Keller (2002): ‘Mapping of a hydrological ice-sheet drainage basin on the West Greenland ice-sheet margin from ERS-1/-2 SAR interferometry, ice-radar measurement and modelling’, Annals of Glaciology, 34, 309–314.
Mayer, C., C.E. Bøggild, S. Podlech, O.B. Olesen, A.P. Ahlstrøm, W. Krabill (2002): ‘Glaciological investigations on ice-sheet response in South Greenland’, Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin, 191, 150–156.
