Feb 17 2006
From The Space Library
A team of scientists, led by Eric J. Rignot of NASA’s JPL and Pannir Kanagaratnam of the University of Kansas Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, reported in the journal Science that, in the last 10 years, Greenland’s glaciers had doubled the rate at which they were losing ice into the Atlantic Ocean, from 96 cubic kilometers (23 cubic miles) per year in 1996, to 220 cubic kilometers (53 cubic miles) in 2005. Using interferometric synthetic-aperture radar data that Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA’s) Radarsat-1 and ESA’s Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar and Earth Remote Sensing Satellites 1 and 2 had collected between 2000 and 2005, the researchers calculated the volume of ice breaking off the edges of the glaciers and falling into the ocean. They attributed the change in glacial ice flow to an increase in global temperature, suggesting that the resulting melting water was making the undersides of the glaciers more slippery and accelerating the pace at which the glacial ice was sliding into the ocean. This study represented the most comprehensive data on glacial ice flow to date. Researchers noted that, based on this research, scientists might need to revise previous computer models predicting the rate of ocean-level increase.
Andrew Bridges, “Greenland Glaciers Dumping More Ice,” Washington Post, 17 February 2006; NASA “Greenland Ice-Loss Doubles in Past Decade, Raising Sea Levels Faster,” press release 06-066, 16 February 2006, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/feb/HQ_06066_Greenland_ice_melting_corrected.html (accessed 2 September 2010); see also Eric Rignot and Pannir Kanagaratnam, “Changes in the Velocity Structure of the Greenland Ice Sheet,” Science 311, no. 5763 (17 February 2006): 986-90.
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