Kangerlussuaq Fjord, Greenland [image credit: notsogreen.com]
Less than a year ago NASA was reporting from Greenland: Jakobshavn Glacier Grows for Third Straight Year, and ‘The glacier grew 22 to 33 yards (20 to 30 meters) each year between 2016 and 2019.’ So this new report may be, to some degree at least, already obsolete since it says: ‘The largest thinning rates were between 4 and 6 m a−1 in Jakobshavn and Kangerlugssuaq glaciers’.
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Sea levels have risen by 14mm since 2003 due to ice melting in Antarctica and Greenland, scientists have said.
Nasa launched a satellite to measure global heights in 2018 and spotted the rise after bouncing laser pulses against sheets of ice, says the London Evening Standard.
The study found that Greenland lost an average of 200 billion tonnes of ice per year, and Antarctica lost an average of 118 billion tonnes.
One billion tonnes of ice is enough to fill 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington compared the data with measurements taken by the satellite between 2003 and 2009.
The findings, published in the journal Science, found the loss of ice from Antarctica and Greenland outweighs any gains from accumulated snow.
Lead author Benjamin Smith, a glaciologist at the University of Washington, said: “If you watch a glacier or ice sheet for a month, or a year, you’re not going to learn much about what the climate is doing to it.
“We now have a 16-year span between ICESat and ICESat-2 [satellites one and two] and can be much more confident that the changes we’re seeing in the ice have to do with the long-term changes in the climate.
“And ICESat-2 is a really remarkable tool for making these measurements. We’re seeing high-quality measurements that carpet both ice sheets, which let us make a detailed and precise comparison with the ICESat data.”
Full article here.
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AAAS Science report: Pervasive ice sheet mass loss reflects competing ocean and atmosphere processes.
via Tallbloke’s Talkshop
May 1, 2020 at 02:18AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 