Climate: Study quantifies sea level rise from melting glaciers

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

‘A little bucket with a huge hole …’

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Alpine glaciers like the Dachstein have been melting quickly. A new study shows that ice melt from glacial regions outside Greenland and Antarctica contribute significantly to sea level rise. Bob Berwyn photo.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — The world’s major ice sheets — on Greenland and Antarctica — haven’t really started a major meltdown yet. But the rest of the world’s glacial regions have been losing ice at a rate of about 260 billion metric tons annually, raising sea level by about 0.03 inches per year — about a third of the observed sea level rise.

The biggest ice losses are happening in Arctic Canada, Alaska, coastal Greenland, the southern Andes and the Himalaya. Combined, the areas contribute as much to sea level rise as melting from the major ice sheets, which lock up about 90 percent of the Earth’s land ice, according to a a new study led by Clark University and involving the University Colorado Boulder.

“Because the global glacier ice mass is relatively small in comparison with the huge ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, people tend to not worry about it,” said CU-Boulder Professor Tad Pfeffer, a study co-author. “But it’s like a little bucket with a huge hole in the bottom: it may not last for very long, just a century or two, but while there’s ice in those glaciers, it’s a major contributor to sea level rise,” said Pfeffer, a glaciologist at CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. (more…)

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EU ice2sea report offers new estimates of sea level rise

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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The EU’s ice2sea program helps to determine potential future impacts of rising sea levels.

Research focuses on contribution of melting glaciers, ice caps and ice shelves

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — After four years of studies and more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, The EU-funded ice2sea program has concluded that melting ice may not contribute as much to sea level rise as some other studies have suggested.

Under a moderate greenhouse gas emissions scenario, the contribution from continental ice will likely amount to between 3.5 and 36.8 centimeters (1.4 to 14.5 inches) by 2100, the program’s leaders said this week, unveiling a new report that summarizes their research. The report is online at the ice2sea home page.

Some of the ice2sea studies have:

The new report includes several case studies outlining the impacts of sea level rise to specific areas, including economically valuable developed areas like the port of Rotterdam and the Thames Estuary, as well as natural areas with unique natural values, like the Machair ecosystems in Ireland and Scotland that thrive in a delicate balance of land and sea. (more…)

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Study projects earlier sea-level rise threat to islands

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Midway Atoll is likely to face serious flooding problems as sea level rises. Photo courtesy NASA.

Dynamic modeling suggests serious flooding threats much sooner than thought

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Low-lying islands may be facing more global warming trouble than previously thought.

New modeling that includes storm wind and wave action shows some islands could face regular inundation within the next few decades as sea level rises.

Even if the islands are not permanently submerged, ocean flooding is likely contaminate freshwater supplies, damage agriculture and infrastructure and threaten important bird, sea turtle and marine mammal habitat. (more…)

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Cloud cover a factor in last summer’s Greenland meltdown

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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Researchers are gaining new insights into the role of clouds in the climate of the Arctic.

New study highlights need to get a better handle on the role of clouds in changing climate

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Widespread melting of the Greenland ice sheet last summer were triggered by an influx of unusually warm air from North America, but the melting was intensified by a layer of clouds that were “just right” for driving surface temperatures there above the melting point.

 

The thin, low-lying clouds allowed the sun’s energy to pass through and warm the surface of the ice, while at the same time trapping heat near the surface of the ice cap, according to a new study published this week in Nature that took a close look at Greenland’s summer heat wave.

“Thicker cloud conditions would not have led to the same amount of surface warming,” said Matthew Shupe, research meteorologist with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado and the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory. “To understand the region’s future, you’ll need to understand its clouds. Our finding has implications for the fate of ice throughout the Arctic.” said Shupe, part of a team that included scientists from NOAA and the Universities of Wisconsin, Idaho and Colorado. (more…)

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Melting of Greenland’s ‘fringe’ glaciers adds to sea level rise

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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The Greenland Today website tracks ice cap changes on a real-time basis. Click on the image for more information.

‘Local’ glaciers reacting faster to global warming than the main ice cap

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Glaciers on the edge of Greenland are pouring at about 50 gigatons of water into the Atlantic every year. That’s about half the volume of Lake Geneva, one of Europe’s largest lake, and enough to account for about 10 percent of annual global sea level rise, according to a new study by Swiss and Danish scientists.

The research, published in Geophysical Research Letters, will help scientists improve the predictions of the future contribution of Greenland’s ice to sea-level rise.

The data could also be used by researchers maintaining the new Greenland Today website, which tracks the state of the ice cap on a real-time basis.

“The melting of ice on Greenland is known to be one of the major sources for global sea-level rise. Beside the large ice sheet, there are thousands of peripheral glaciers which are not connected to the ice sheet or can be separated from it due to the existence of ice divides,” said lead author Dr. Tobias Bolch, of the University of Zurich. “The area of those glaciers is about 50 times higher than the ice cover of the European Alps. Consequently, it is important to investigate not only the ice sheet but also these local glaciers,” he said. (more…)

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Climate: Ice loss in Canadian Arctic deemed ‘irreversible’

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

New ice2sea study shows Canada’s Arctic Archipelago glaciers will melt faster than ever in the next few centuries

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Satellites have long been tracking sea ice loss in the Canadian Arctic, and new climate models suggest that glaciers in the region are also declining rapidly. Visit this NASA Earth Observatory page for more information.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Along with Arctic sea ice, a new study from the EU ice2sea program indicates that 20 percent of Canada’s Arctic glaciers are likely to melt by the end of the century, adding about 3.5 centimeters (1.4 inches) of sea level rise.

After testing the accuracy of their model against observed melting in the region the past 10 years, the scientists projected the findings into the future. Even under moderate greenhouse gas emissions and global warming scenarios, the ice loss in Canada’s northern archipelago is now irreversible.

“Even if we assume that global warming is not happening quite so fast, it is still highly likely that the ice is going to melt at an alarming rate. The chances of it growing back are very slim,” said lead author Dr. Jan Lenaerts, of Utrecht University. (more…)

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Climate: New study maps regional sea level rise variation

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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A new study coordinated by the EU’s ice2sea program helps identify which parts of the world will be most affected by sea level rise in the coming decades.

Tropical Pacific to see the greatest increases, while relative sea level is likely to drop in some polar regions

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Intensifying concerns about the potential for sea level rise to swamp low-lying Pacific island nations are justified, according to a new report in the Geophysical Research Letters journal. Western Australia, Oceania and the small atolls and islands in this region, including Hawaii, are at greatest risk, according to the new study from EU’s ice2sea program.

The results of the modeling mirror observational data that’s been collected by satellites in the past few decades, said David Vaughan, program coordinator for EU’s ice2sea program, which seeks to develop more accurate sea level rise predictions. (more…)

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Global warming: Feds say threat of sea level rise is very real

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

New report recommends bolstering natural defenses, better long-range planning for coastal communities

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Rising sea levels are already eating away at Florida beaches, requiring expensive augmentation projects. Bob Berwyn photo.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Along with obvious threats like flooding, rising sea level is likely to affect the U.S. in more unexpected ways, including a decline in seafood quality and shifts in disease patterns, according to a new technical report released this week by the U.S. Geological Survey and NOAA.

The report emphasizes the need for increased coordination and planning to ensure U.S. coastal communities are resilient against the effects of climate change. Sea level rise and  increases in extreme weather threaten the the sustainability of many existing coastal communities and natural resources, according to USGS researcher  Virginia Burkett.

“An increase in the intensity of extreme weather events such as storms like Sandy and Katrina, coupled with sea-level rise and the effects of increased human development along the coasts, could affect the sustainability of many existing coastal communities and natural resources,” said Virginia Burkett of the U.S. Geological Survey and co-lead author of the report. (more…)

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New ice core data from Greenland offers chilling clues about the direction of Earth’s climate

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

‘Our kids and grandkids are definitely going to look back and shake their heads at the inaction of this country’s generation’

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For several days in July 2012, the surface of the Greenland ice sheet melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. An estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12, with satellite data providing a picture of an extreme melt event about which scientists are very confident. Graphic courtest Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC, and Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Last summer’s unusual melting at the surface of Greenland’s ice cap has a historic precedent, but you have to go back more than 100,000 years, to an extremely warm interglacial period of Earth’s history, to find it, according to an international science team’s  analysis of ice core samples spanning millennia of climate history.

The new study, published this week in Nature, offers clues about where the planet is headed in terms of increasing greenhouse gases and rising temperatures, according to CU-Boulder ice core expert Jim White — another researcher whose detailed knowledge of climate science has led him to advocate for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

“Unfortunately, we have reached a point where there is so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere it’s going to be difficult for us to further limit our impact on the planet,” White said. “Our kids and grandkids are definitely going to look back and shake their heads at the inaction of this country’s generation. We are burning the lion’s share of oil and natural gas to benefit our lifestyle, and punting the responsibility for it.” (more…)

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Climate: Study suggests recent West Antarctic glacier changes are nearly unprecedented

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Data to help refine sea level rise forecasts

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West Antarctica‘s Pine Island Glacier. Photo courtesy European Space Agency.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — After studying the paleoclimate record of West Antarctica, an international team of scientists say some of the recent observed changes in the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers may well be exceptional and are unlikely to have happened more than three or four times in the last 10,000 years.

Radiocarbon dates of tiny fossilized marine animals found in Antarctica’s seabed sediments offer new clues about the recent rapid ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and help scientists make better predictions about future sea-level rise.  This region of the icy continent is thought to be vulnerable to regional climate warming and changes in ocean circulation. (more…)

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