FEATURE STORY 24 MISSION: WATER ON ICE STEVE WERBLOW Stream Flow Data Improve Greenland Ice Melt Models The helicopter lifted a net full of camping supplies off the ice, turning to carry it to a safer location. On the windblown landscape, a small knot of scientists watched it leave.The day before, the group had chosen the site as their base of operations for a bold, multi-day study of the flow of meltwater across the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet. But when they arrived with the chopper that morning, they realized a flash flood had occurred while they were gone, strewing car-sized chunks of ice across the area. Clearly, the site was not as safe as it had seemed when they chose it by analyzing satellite photos and flying over it the previous day. The pilot promised to be back in a few hours for the team. "Watching him fly away was like, 'what have we done?'" laughs Brandon Overstreet, a University of Wyoming graduate student. He kept an anxious eye on a cloud bank on the horizon, hoping it wouldn't blow in and delay the chopper's return. A few feet away, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) graduate student Lincoln Pitcher reveled in the adventure of being surrounded by miles of ice, his team's only link to distant civilization a satellite phone in his pack. "Where else can you do that?" he asks. A team of scientists watches from its camp on the Greenland Ice Sheet as its helicopter lifts off. Photo Courtesy: Lincoln Pitcher