Project: REGLA

The REGLA project studies one of the most inaccessible places on Earth: the area between the Greenland Ice Sheet and its bed. The project aims to make it possible to predict how Greenland’s glaciers will respond to climate change.

Covered by hundreds to thousands of metres of ice, observations of this “subglacial system” are extremely rare, and many of our current assumptions about Greenland's subglacial system are based on observations from glaciers in the Alps. But, there is limited evidence that measurements from thin, warm and slow Alpine glaciers are directly transferable to the thick, cold and fast glaciers in Greenland. This is a problem for the accuracy of the models that are used when estimating future sea-level rise and other climate-change effects.

Aim of the project

REGLA aims to investigate how and why subglacial conditions determine glaciers’ responses to surface melt: some glaciers accelerate as surface melt increases, while others decelerate. The project will use satellite observations, machine learning, mathematical models, and drone measurements to study the occurrence of subglacial meltwater flow. In addition, a seismic truck will investigate the geology beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet.

With the new data and observations, REGLA will construct better descriptions of Greenland’s subglacial system and improve predictions of how glacier flow will respond to future climate change.