Google

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Bad News for Florida: Models of Greenland Ice Melting Could Be Way Off - NBC News.com

Bad News for Florida: Models of Greenland Ice Melting Could Be Way Off - NBC News.com: "Existing computer models may be severely underestimating the risk to Greenland's ice sheet — which would add 20 feet to sea levels if it all melted — from warming temperatures, according to two studies released Monday.

Satellite data were instrumental for both studies — one which concludes that Greenland is likely to see many more lakes that speed up melt, and the other which better tracks large glaciers all around Earth's largest island.

The lakes study, published in the peer-reviewed Nature Climate Change, found that what are called "supraglacial lakes" have been migrating inland since the 1970s as temperatures warm, and could double on Greenland by 2060.


UN Chief Calls For Drastic Action On Climate ChangeNBC NEWS



Paste HTML to embed video:

The study upends models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change because they "didn't allow for lake spreading, so the work has to be done again," study co-author Andrew Shepherd, director of Britain's Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, told NBCNews.com.

Those lakes can speed up ice loss since, being darker than the white ice, they can absorb more of the sun's heat and cause melting. The melt itself creates channels through the ice sheet to weaken it further, sending ice off the sheet and into the ocean.

"When you pour pancake batter into a pan, if it rushes quickly to the edges of the pan, you end up with a thin pancake," study lead author Amber Leeson, a researcher at Britain's University of Leeds, explained in a statement. "It's similar to what happens with ice sheets: The faster it flows, the thinner it will be."



'via Blog this'

No comments: