Greenland from 36000 feet

I am lucky that my PhD position involves travel to awesome places for conferences. Last week I flew to the States for the AMS conference on radar meteorology in Breckenridge, Colorado. The flight across the Atlantic was from London to Denver, and because of strong headwinds over the ocean, the pilots took us way north. We tracked up the length of the UK, over the Faroe Islands, and across the northern tip of Iceland. Then we flew across the middle of Greenland. This was the highlight of the trip, because there were wonderfully clear conditions, and we got an absolutely spectacular view from cruising level.

It was so unusually clear that the pilot made an announcement to tell people to look. At first there were just bright white icebergs dotting the sea; they must have been enormous to be so clearly visible from so high. Then we were over the coastal mountains. Rows of mountains on mountains stretched to the horizon, their icy peaks casting detailed shadows on the glaciers below. The glaciers themselves were remarkable for their breadth and appeared smooth from the plane, although I'm sure that close-up they are crevassed and detailed. The mountains gradually thinned until we were just flying over the ice-cap itself, spectacular in its enormity, subtly patterned white to the horizon. A wonderful thing to have seen.