River_discharge_PakisjoqSouth_River_Greenland_2011_to_2012

This project studies Greenlandic Rivers as integrated signals of a rapidly changing Arctic hydrological cycle. Observed increased rates of melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) are expected to have a profound impact on the runoff of numerous rivers draining the ice sheet margin. However, there are few observational records of water discharge of Greenlandic Rivers, or any other observations to constrain runoff to systematically assess the freshwater drained to the ocean. This dataset consists of reconstructed river discharge measurements of a remote gauging station which was installed at the narrowest part of the braidplain of the Pakitsjoq_South' River in 2011. The station is located at 69.442,-50.408 about 5 km from the Greenland Ice Sheet margin. The river drains into Pakisjup Bay close to Illullissat, and is since 2013 being tapped and rerouted partially for hydropower. The station is equipped with a Campbell SR50a sonic ranger and samples river stage height every 60 minutes. The sonic ranger measurements are corrected automatically for fluctuations in local air temperature to correct for variations in speed of sound in air, as specified by the manufacturer. We obtained cross-sectional profiles and velocity measurements, and a tentative stage-discharge relationship is established. This data is provisional.