Graduate Student Studies Abroad at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS)

This fall cryoGARS graduate student, Karina Zikan, traveled to Copenhagen to study as a visiting PhD student at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), Climate and Glaciology Department. During her two month visit, Karina collaborated with the PROMICE team, who have recently completed a 2022 manual delineation of the Greenland Ice Sheet (https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-415), to develop the automated GReenland Ice Terrestrial TermInus (autoGRITTI). This collaboration expands on work Karina started while interning with Joe MacGregor at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 2024. 

Currently researchers rely on tedious and labor intensive manual delineations of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s land terminating ice, this requires tracing over 50,000 km of ice by hand! autoGRITTI is an automated method for delineating the Greenland Ice Sheet’s land terminus, providing rapid delineations to supplement manual observation. Back at Boise State, Karina will continue working with her GEUS collaborators to expand autoGRITTI into an annual time series of Greenland terrestrial ice position from 2018 to present, quantifying recent changes.