The Editor,

Journal of Glaciology

Sir, South Greenland traverses

From May until early September 1959 and 1960, a team of two scientists and two technicians traversed the south Greenland dome for the purpose of determining summer and winter accumulation, mean annual temperatures, facies delineations (Reference BensonBenson, 1960), and snow characteristics pertinent to moving, constructing, and operating on the ice sheet. In 1959 studies also were made in the crevassed “ramp” area north of the village of Narssarssuaq to find a route to a previously surveyed access road from the settlement to the edge of the ice (Reference LeightyLeighty, 1960, p. 1–36). The ramp route was revisited and re-evaluated in the spring of 1960.

Personnel on the traverses were from the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL),Footnote * Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Army Polar Research and Development Center (PRDC).

The scientific program carried out at pit stations, at intervals of from 20 to 50 miles (32 to 80 km.), included firn temperatures, density measurements, firn stratigraphy, and ram hardness observations in pits 1 to 4 m. deep and in core holes to m. deep (Fig. 1). Additional observations taken both at the pit stations and on the trail between pit stations comprised ram hardness tests every 5 miles (8 km.), altimetry readings every mile (1.6 km.), synoptic meteorological observations, and observations on primary and secondary sastrugi, and general trafficability. Added to the program in 1960 are data from studies of thermal conductivity and diffusivity in the uppermost meter of the firn. These data will he published in forthcoming CRREL reports.

Fig. 1.

South Greenland summer traverses. 1959 and 1960. O 1959 pit stations; O 1960 pit stations; O 1959–60 pit stations

This letter presents some data to supplement, and to indicate where corrections might be made to the paper by Reference DiamondDiamond (1960). The data listed in Table I, however, must be considered preliminary information.

Table I

Table II

A prediction formula for the mean annual temperature above 1,800 m. and between lat. 62.6° N. and 67.0° N. is

where

• T is the mean temperature in ° C.,

• L is the latitude in degrees and tenths of degrees,

• E is the elevation in meters.

Predicted temperatures agree fairly well with observed temperatures as is shown at a few randomly chosen stations listed in Table II

R. H. Ragle and T. C. Davis, Jr.

U.S. Army Cold Regions Research, and Engineering Laboratory,Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A. 28 March 1961