In 2007 the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) was initiated as an ongoing effort to assess changes in the mass budget of the Greenland ice sheet. The two major contributors to the Greenland ice sheet mass loss are a reduction in the surface mass budget through enhanced surface melt and an increasing ice calving flux through glacier acceleration. PROMICE aims to quantify both these processes. The surface mass budget is monitored by a network of weather stations in the melt zone of the ice sheet, providing measurements that feed into models calculating ice-sheet-wide melt. Changes in ice dynamics are tracked using satellite imagery and on-ice GPS. In order to translate this into the mass of ice lost at the many Greenland calving glaciers, information on ice thickness is required as well. This is obtained by airborne laser and radar surveys of the entire ice sheet margin. In addition, changes in the extent of the ice sheet and the many local ice caps and glaciers in Greenland are monitored through with satellite imagery.
The PROMICE network on the ground is composed of seven transects encompassing the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Each transect is composed by two to four automatic stations, from Thule in NW Greenland to Upernavik, Kangerlussuaq, Nuuk, and Qassimiut in West and South Greenland, to Tasiilaq, Scoresbysund and Kronprins Christian Land in East and North Greenland. Starting with 2009, Mittivakkat Glacier in East Greenland is also being monitored. Since 2007 all PROMICE stations are identical and measure air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, incoming and outgoing short- and longwave radiation, ice temperature, surface velocity, snow depth and surface ice ablation.
The PROMICE network on the ground is composed of seven transects encompassing the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Each transect is composed by two to four automatic stations, from Thule in NW Greenland to Upernavik, Kangerlussuaq, Nuuk, and Qassimiut in West and South Greenland, to Tasiilaq, Scoresbysund and Kronprins Christian Land in East and North Greenland. Starting with 2009, Mittivakkat Glacier in East Greenland is also being monitored. Since 2007 all PROMICE stations are identical and measure air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, incoming and outgoing short- and longwave radiation, ice temperature, surface velocity, snow depth and surface ice ablation.