Greenland Ice-Loss Doubles in Past Decade, Raising Sea Level Faster

Greenland Ice-Loss Doubles in Past Decade, Raising Sea Level Faster

The loss of ice from Greenland doubled between 1996 and 2005, as its glaciers flowed faster into the ocean in response to a generally warmer climate, according to a NASA/University of Kansas study. The study will be published tomorrow in the journal Science. It concludes the changes to Greenland’s glaciers in the past decade are widespread, large and sustained over time. They are progressively affecting the entire ice sheet and increasing its contribution to global sea level rise.

Researchers Eric Rignot of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Pannir Kanagaratnam of the University of Kansas Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, Lawrence, used data from Canadian and European satellites. They conducted a nearly comprehensive survey of Greenland glacial ice discharge rates at different times during the past 10 years.

“The Greenland ice sheet’s contribution to sea level is an issue of considerable societal and scientific importance,” Rignot said. “These findings call into question predictions of the future of Greenland in a warmer climate from computer models that do not include variations in glacier as a component of change. Actual changes will likely be much larger than predicted by these models.”

Read the complete Press Release