Greenland Still Losing Ice Mass Through 4/06, Melt Rate Accelerating

[hatrack]

MODS: press release reproduced in its entirety.

Data gathered by a pair of NASA satellites orbiting Earth show Greenland continued to lose ice mass at a significant rate through April 2006, and that the rate of loss is accelerating, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.

The study indicates that from April 2004 to April 2006, Greenland was shedding ice at about two and one-half times the rate of the previous two-year period, according to CU-Boulder researchers Isabella Velicogna and John Wahr. The researchers used measurements taken with the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, to calculate that Greenland lost roughly 164 cubic miles of ice from April 2004 to April 2006 -- more than the volume of water in Lake Erie.

The new study, published in the Sept. 21 issue of Nature, follows on the heels of a study published in Science in August by a University of Texas at Austin team using GRACE that showed Greenland lost 57 cubic miles of ice annually from 2002 to 2005. The new CU-Boulder study indicates the speed-up in ice mass loss charted by the researchers has been occurring primarily in southern Greenland, said Velicogna.

"The acceleration rate really took off in 2004," said Velicogna, a researcher at the CU-Boulder-based Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. "We think the changes we are seeing are probably a pretty good indicator of the changing climatic conditions in Greenland, particularly in the southern region."

Studies by several research groups indicate temperatures in southern Greenland have risen by about 4.4 degrees F in the past two decades, she said.

The CU-Boulder findings also are consistent with studies charting a dramatic acceleration of the Kangerdlugssaq and Helheim glaciers in southeast Greenland using satellite radar observations, said Wahr. A 2006 study by researchers at the University of Wales, for example, showed the two glaciers have doubled their speed and are dumping twice as much ice into the sea as they did five years ago.

"Our results correlate well with independent observations of glacier acceleration in the south of Greenland," said Wahr, also a professor of physics at CU-Boulder. "It's a fairly straightforward story -- the ice loss in Greenland increased dramatically in 2004, particularly in the south, and it is continuing."

CIRES Director Konrad Steffen, who has maintained more than 20 climate stations in Greenland for nearly two decades, said temperatures have warmed by more than 4 degrees F along the western slope of its ice sheet since 1990. "The increased surface melt of snow and ice provides additional meltwater to lubricate the bottom of the ice sheet and increases the ice flow velocity toward the coast," said Steffen, a CU-Boulder geography professor who was not involved in the Nature study.

Launched in 2002 by NASA and Germany, the two GRACE satellites whip around Earth 16 times a day at an altitude of 310 miles, sensing subtle variations in Earth's mass and gravitational pull. Separated by 137 miles, the satellites measure changes in Earth's gravity field caused by regional changes in the planet's mass, including ice sheets, oceans and water stored in the soil and in underground aquifers.

A change in gravity due to a pass by GRACE over a portion of Greenland imperceptibly tugs the lead satellite away from the trailing satellite, said Velicogna. A sensitive ranging system allows researchers to measure the distance of the two satellites down to as small as 1 micron -- about 1/50 the width of a human hair -- and to then calculate the ice mass in particular regions of Greenland.

In March 2006, Velicogna and Wahr used GRACE to determine that the Antarctic ice sheet -- which holds 70 percent of Earth's freshwater -- lost up to 36 cubic miles of ice annually from April 2002 to August 2005. Greenland, the largest island in the world, harbors about 10 percent of the world's freshwater in its ice sheet, which is up to two miles thick in places. If the Greenland ice sheet melted completely, the world's oceans would rise more than 20 feet, according to scientists.

Significant ice loss in Greenland has the potential to have severe effects on the climate of the Northern Hemisphere, said Velicogna, who also is affiliated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which manages GRACE for NASA. Scientists believe that large amounts of freshwater purged from Greenland's eastern coast could help to weaken the counterclockwise flow of the North Atlantic Current, lowering water and wind temperatures and potentially triggering abrupt cooling events in northern Europe.

CIRES is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Animation of the GRACE mission is available on the Web at www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/gallery/animations/.

Download the associated photo.

Contact: Isabella Velicogna, [phone] or
[phone] (cell)
[e-mail]
John Wahr, [phone]
[e-mail]
Jim Scott, [phone]

EDIT/END

http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2006/300.html

[kestrel91316]

1. I don't understand all the fuss over Greenland. They are soon

going to be a major exporter of cabbage and potatoes. Less ice = YAY!!!!

Globalism wins again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Crunchy Frog]

2. All the people who get washed out of Bangledesh

can resettle in Greenland. It'll be fantabulous!

[kestrel91316]

8. They can grow rice in the flooded lowlands of Greenland.......

[Dead_Parrot]

3. The question is...

...is the rate of loss just accelerating, or is it accelerating faster than expected?

[Boomer]

4. It's ALWAYS faster than expected

That's just a given now, isn't it?

Doesn't matter the issue, or the particulars of previous predictions, reports of anything related to climate change show the rate of going-to-hell is faster than expected.

A few years ago I pitied the young children of my friends and neighbors, because I figured by the time they were my age, the world would be changing for the worse.

Now I'm very much afraid that I will see those changes first-hand myself. Based on actuarial tables, I could be around for another 25 years; based on family history, that time could -- theoretically -- stretch out to another 40+ years.

The propect of reaching my 90s no longer thrills me. I'm curious, but not THAT curious about our fate as a species. 2050 will not be a year for the faint of heart.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. From you keyboard...

It struck me the other day, that my daughter (about to hit 2) will spend most of her life not knowing what I consider "normal": The first few years never get get firmly lodged in your memory, and by the time she's at school we'll probably be well in the thick of it. I suspect the world I grew up in has already gone, and there's just inertia keeping some of the patterns in place. Like a headless chicken, we just haven't realised yet that we're dead.

My parents - back in the UK - were complaining about having another hot summer, and the damage it was doing to their garden: I knew my daughter would see what we've wrought, and I suspected I would see it, but I didn't think my parents - both in their 70's - would be complaining about a climate shift.

I think we've missed the boat...

A man lies and dreams of green fields and rivers
But awakes to a morning with no reason for waking
He's haunted by the memory of a lost paradise
In his youth or a dream, he can't be precise
He's chained forever to a world that's departed
It's not enough, it's not enough

[Nihil]

6. I hear you.

My eldest turned 16 today.

What will he have seen (and been through) by the time he is my age?

When he was born, we knew that there would be environmental crises
(some were already happening - extinctions, pollution, resource
depletion - all through Man's greed). Even so, we honestly believed
that by living our lives carefully (the 3 Rs, supporting green
technologies & strategies, thinking long-term results rather than
cash in the pocket now, paying more if necessary to "do the right thing")
that the potential disasters ahead could be avoided and/or averted.

Today, what can I offer him?

He (and the rest of the family for that matter) has had years of
"doing the right thing" but has seen the majority of the world
consistently doing the wrong thing. They are up to date on the climate
issues, the pollution problems, the resource depletion but they can
watch the news and see world leaders who know less than the little
10 year old sat next to them.

They see people exploiting irreplaceable resources to maximise their
profit for this quarter. They see laws made and enforced against the
little man but totally ignored by the large corporations.
They see a report on obesity followed by one on famine.
They hear about G8 conferences on climate issues ... that everyone
and their mistress fly to ...

What are they to make of this insanity?
What will be left for them to make something from?

[Dead_Parrot]

9. Photographs, and our apologies

Not much of a legacy. :(

[Boomer]

7. That thought has passed my mind

>>...but I didn't think my parents - both in their 70's - would be complaining about a climate shift.

I was reflecting on my mother, who died at age 82 a few years back, and my father-in-law who died last year. They died at just the right time. They lived through the depression, through World War II, and in their old age enjoyed the prosperity of the American middle class. They died before the sourness of this country became as obvious as it has over the last year, and before experiencing the leading edge of our ecosystem's destruction.

You and I will not be so lucky.