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The northern lights shimmer above Summit Station, which lies near the top of the Greenland Ice Sheet, 250 miles from its nearest neighbor. The longest continually operating station on the ice sheet, Summit’s unique geography provides a virtually unlimited pristine snowfield and very little climate variability.
Both factors allow researchers to detect small regional and larger-scale trends quickly. The station provides historical as well as real-time data. Summit ice cores date back over 100,000 years, providing critical baseline data for Arctic temperature and atmospheric composition. Data from Summit also impact real-time weather prediction, particularly in the winter due to the station’s proximity to the North Atlantic storm track.Image credit: Sam Dorsi/Polar Field Services
