A few years back, we thought ice sheets might grow because of increased precipitation. Now we see that rates of glacier flow are changing. We think the process that is winning overall is the rate of glacier flow. |
Climate warming can work in different ways, but generally speaking, if you warm up the ice sheet, the glacier will flow faster. |
Greenland is probably going to contribute more and faster to sea level rise than predicted. |
I don't think it will effect Californians immediately, It will effect storms along the coasts and we will see a measurable effect at sea level as a result of melting ice caps. |
I think this will heighten concerns that maybe the sea-level models are a little too conservative. |
In the future, as warming around Greenland progresses further north, we expect additional losses from northwest Greenland glaciers, which will then increase Greenland's contribution to sea level rise. |
It takes a long time to build and melt an ice sheet, but glaciers can react quickly to temperature changes. |
It's likely that Greenland is going to contribute more and faster to rising sea levels than previously estimated. |
The behavior of the glaciers that dump ice into the sea is the most important aspect of understanding how an ice sheet will evolve in a changing climate. It takes a long time to build and melt an ice sheet, but glaciers can react quickly to temperature changes. |
The evolution of the ice sheet, in the context of climate warming, is more rapid than has been predicted by models. |
The Greenland ice sheet's contribution to sea level is an issue of considerable societal and scientific importance. |
The mass loss resulting from this glacier acceleration in Greenland is very significant. These are very active glaciers. They all end up in the ocean, discharge icebergs and are very dynamic. One you push them a little bit out of equilibrium, they start retreating very fast. |
The southern half of Greenland is reacting to what we think is climate warming. The northern half is waiting but I don't think it's going to take long. |
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 flow as a component of change. Actual changes will likely be much larger than predicted by these models. |
This is clearly a result of warming around the periphery of Greenland. |