OMG Narwhals oceanographic data from moorings, 2018-2020

NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) campaign obtained oceanographic observations around Greenland at an unprecedented spatial scale and confirmed that the ocean plays a key role in Greenland glacier acceleration and retreat. Yet, ocean observations along Greenland’s margins are biased toward summer months with relatively few year-round measurements.

OMG Narwhals, a project coupled with NASA’s OMG mission, seeks to understand the ecological importance of glacial habitats to narwhals. Narwhals return to glacial outlets and fjords each summer with high site fidelity but what attracts them to specific glacier fronts remains unclear. Between 2018 and 2020, five bottom-mounted moorings with marine mammal acoustic recorders and oceanographic instruments were deployed year-round near three glacier fronts: Sverdrup Glacier, Kong Oscar Glacier, and Rink Glacier.