Greenland Ice Cap

Quote from following site:

www.arctic.noaa.gov...

"Daily surveys of Greenland ice sheet marine-terminating outlet glaciers, from cloud-free Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) visible imagery (bprc.osu.edu...), indicate that in the past year Greenland glaciers collectively lost an area of 419 km2. This is more than 3 times the loss rates of the previous 8 years, 2002-2009, which was 121 km2/year (Figure GL4). 7/10 of this year's loss came from the 290 km2 ice island detachment from Petermann glacier in far northwest Greenland (see: bprc.osu.edu...). Glacier ice area loss elsewhere (i.e. outside the Petermann Glacier) remained near the 121 km2/year rate observed during the past decade. There is now clear evidence that the ice area loss rate of the past decade is greater than loss rates pre-2000".

There are some interesting links from this site - www.pmel.noaa.gov... where I found the above information.

Probably been seen before, but as we are currently experiencing a prolonged cold spell in the Northern Hemisphere, guess it might be an interesting web site to delve into...

reply to post by ckitch


bprc.osu.edu...

...And with warmer saline filled seas, the Atlantic Conveyor must presumably be affected at an ever increasing rate, thus cooling the temperatures in Europe etc.!

reply to post by ckitch


I have been following the losses in Greenland for a while now.
The extreme ice survey has excellent time lapse camera footage over a 3 year period that relates to some of the regions mentioned in the OP.
This footage by James Balog, the man who started the program, noted an acceleration in the melting.
Your OP link is further evidence of this trend.

Here is a link to the footage.
www.extremeicesurvey.org...

Here is a link to a time lapse gallery with narration for Greenland, Alaska and Iceland.
www.extremeicesurvey.org...

These should illustrate the kind of losses that the article mentions.

Originally posted by ckitch
reply to post by ckitch

 

bprc.osu.edu...

...And with warmer saline filled seas, the Atlantic Conveyor must presumably be affected at an ever increasing rate, thus cooling the temperatures in Europe etc.!

Desalinization of the oceans spells D-O-O-M vis a vis "The Day After Tomorrow".
And man is getting cold out there...

reply to post by ckitch


There may be some hope..www.newscientist.com...

Greenland's ice has secret weapon against melting

Greenland's vast ice sheets are proving surprisingly resilient. That means the glaciers will melt only slowly as the climate warms, provided it does so steadily. However, wild changes in the weather could make them melt much faster.

Greenland's ice sheets are shrinking already as the climate warms, and some glaciologists fear that they could accelerate their own destruction. If they all melted, they would raise global sea levels by 6.5 metres – though even in a world 8 °C warmer than now this might take 1000 years.

The feared self-destruct device is water. As a glacier melts, water runs down to its base. In theory, this lubrication should accelerate the glacier's slide downhill and melt it sooner.

But this positive feedback is "limited", says Christian Schoof of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, who has built a new model of glaciers that simulates how they respond to meltwater. He says glaciers can get rid of excess water because of the way their internal structure changes.

reply to post by tarifa37


Interesting stuff. But the ice caps ARE melting at an alarming rate, and if the ice IS somehow capable of protecting itself from the water produced from melting, this water is unfortunately, still going into the sea and diluting the salinity, which WILL affect the Atlantic Conveyor, and ultimately our temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere.

PS -Of course, we are yet to experience the added effects of the GOM oil leak, which must have messed up the Gulf Stream?!