Alaska’s Columbia Glacier may stop retreating by 2020

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

New modeling may help generate more accurate predictions of sea level rise

An iceberg from Alaska’s Columbia Glacier floats in Prince William Sound. Photo by Kim Fenske.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Alaska’s Columbia Glacier — a poster child for the impacts of global warming — is likely to stop receding around 2020, when the terminus of the glacier retreats into water shallow enough to provide a stable position through 2100 by slowing the rate of iceberg production.

The Columbia Glacier is a large (425 square miles), multi-branched glacier in south-central Alaska that flows mostly south out of the Chugach Mountains to its tidewater terminus in Prince William Sound.

The new study by Boulder-based University of Colorado scientists with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences shows that a single glacier’s contribution to sea level rise can “turn on” and “turn off” quite rapidly, over a couple of years, with the precise timing of the life cycle being difficult to forecast. (more…)

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Climate: Summers are indeed getting warmer

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Statistical analysis of observational data reinforces modeling projections

October 2012 temperature anomalies compared to the 1951-1980 average.

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — If you live in the Balkans, or perhaps the southwestern U.S. and you feel like summers have been getting warming, it’s not just your imagination.

After crunching numbers from 90 years worth of observational data, scientists with the Boulder-based Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences say they’ve shown that summer climates are, for the most part, warming.

“It is the first time that we show on a local scale that there are significant changes in summer temperatures,” said lead author CIRES scientist Irina Mahlstein. “This result shows us that we are experiencing a new summer climate regime in some regions.” (more…)

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Climate: Is the Greenland ice sheet slip-sliding away?

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

New study assesses impacts of draining glacial lakes

This is a surface, or supraglacial lake on the Greenland Ice Sheet. PHOTO COURTESY KONRAD STEFFEN/UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A team of Boulder-based researchers is trying to determine whether Greenland’s ice sheet is about to slip off the island and into the sea due to massive releases of meltwater from surface lakes.

Those events have become increasingly frequent, especially in warmer years, and may affect sea-level rise, with implications for coastal communities, according to the researchers with the University of Colorado Boulder-based Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

While previous research has documented coastal glaciers speeding up, it’s still unclear what’s causing the acceleration, but the evidence is growing that global warming may be a factor, said the researchers, who compared the process to a load of snow sliding off a roof on a sunny day. (more…)

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