UK Polar Research Vessel Heads to Greenland to Investigate Glacier Melt Impacts with Nearly $90 Million Investment

(Central News Agency, Harwich, UK, 15th – compiled international reports) An 80-member international research team will this week board a polar research vessel bound for Greenland to investigate whether the island's rapidly melting glaciers are disrupting the Atlantic Ocean circulation system and affecting Europe's climate. This 5-to-6-week mission will depart from the United Kingdom.

The UK and Western Europe have just experienced their hottest June on record, resulting in power outages, school closures, and a rising number of heat-related deaths.

Kelly Hogan, a marine geophysicist leading the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), said in a Reuters interview aboard the vessel: 'The heatwaves the UK and Europe have experienced over the past few months have truly shown us how difficult it is for humans to adapt, even to minor climate changes.'

This survey is part of the 'Greenland Ice sheet to AtlaNtic Tipping points' (GIANT) project, conducted aboard the research vessel RSS David Attenborough.

The £20 million (approximately NT$862.51 million) project aims to study how glaciers melt and break apart into the sea, and the environmental impacts of these processes.

Scientists are concerned that melting ice sheets could release vast amounts of freshwater into the oceans, raising sea levels and potentially disrupting ocean circulation systems, leading to more extreme weather. The circulation system plays a crucial role in regulating Europe's climate.

Captain Matt Neill, who first traveled to Antarctica in 2011 as a trainee with the British Antarctic Survey, said he has already witnessed the impacts of global climate change firsthand.

Neill said: 'Many glaciers are retreating at an extremely rapid pace, beyond imagination… Therefore, during this period of rapid change, it is more important than ever to collect on-site data and refine our predictive models.'

The research vessel 'RSS David Attenborough' will travel to the boundary zone between glaciers and the open sea, diving to depths of 1,500 meters to map the region's geometry and study its impact on glaciers.

Sam Smith, an operations engineer at the UK's National Oceanography Centre, said: 'We will gather many valuable data points that have never been obtained before.' The collected data will help develop next-generation climate models and contribute to the establishment of early warning systems for glacier collapse. (Translation: Chi-Chin-Ling) 1150715

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