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Thursday, July 26, 2012
Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt (News-NASA)
Extent of surface melt over Greenland’s ice
sheet on July 8 and July 12 . Measurements from three
satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice sheet had
undergone thawing at or near the surface. In just a few days, the
melting had dramatically accelerated and an estimated 97 percent of the
ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12. In the image, the areas
classified as “probable melt” (light pink) correspond to those sites
where at least one satellite detected surface melting. The areas
classified as “melt” (dark pink) correspond to sites where two or three
satellites detected surface melting. The satellites are measuring
different physical properties at different scales and are passing over
Greenland at different times. As a whole, they provide a picture of an
extreme melt event about which scientists are very confident. Credit:
Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC, and Jesse Allen, NASA Earth
Observatory
For several days this month, Greenland's surface ice cover melted over a
larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite
observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin,
low-lying coastal edges to its two-mile-thick center, experienced some
degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three
independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists.
On average in the summer, about half of the surface of Greenland's ice sheet naturally melts. At high elevations, most of that melt water quickly refreezes in place. Near the coast, some of the melt water is retained by the ice sheet and the rest is lost to the ocean. But this year the extent of ice melting at or near the surface jumped dramatically. According to satellite data, an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface thawed at some point in mid-July.
Researchers have not yet determined whether this extensive melt event will affect the overall volume of ice loss this summer and contribute to sea level rise.
"The Greenland ice sheet is a vast area with a varied history of change. This event, combined with other natural but uncommon phenomena, such as the large calving event last week on Petermann Glacier, are part of a complex story," said Tom Wagner, NASA's cryosphere program manager in Washington. "Satellite observations are helping us understand how events like these may relate to one another as well as to the broader climate system."
Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., was
analyzing radar data from the Indian Space Research Organisation's
(ISRO) Oceansat-2 satellite last week when he noticed that most of
Greenland appeared to have undergone surface melting on July 12. Nghiem
said, "This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result:
was this real or was it due to a data error?"
Nghiem consulted with Dorothy Hall at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Hall studies the surface temperature of Greenland using the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. She confirmed that MODIS showed unusually high temperatures and that melt was extensive over the ice sheet surface.
Thomas Mote, a climatologist at the University of Georgia, Athens, Ga; and Marco Tedesco of City University of New York also confirmed the melt seen by Oceansat-2 and MODIS with passive-microwave satellite data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder on a U.S. Air Force meteorological satellite.
The melting spread quickly. Melt maps derived from the three satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice sheet's surface had melted. By July 12, 97 percent had melted.
This extreme melt event coincided with an unusually strong ridge of warm air, or a heat dome, over Greenland. The ridge was one of a series that has dominated Greenland's weather since the end of May. "Each successive ridge has been stronger than the previous one," said Mote. This latest heat dome started to move over Greenland on July 8, and then parked itself over the ice sheet about three days later. By July 16, it had begun to dissipate.
Even the area around Summit Station in central Greenland, which at 2 miles above sea level is near the highest point of the ice sheet, showed signs of melting. Such pronounced melting at Summit and across the ice sheet has not occurred since 1889, according to ice cores analyzed by Kaitlin Keegan at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather station at Summit confirmed air temperatures hovered above or within a degree of freezing for several hours July 11-12.
"Ice cores from Summit show that melting events of this type occur about once every 150 years on average. With the last one happening in 1889, this event is right on time," says Lora Koenig, a Goddard glaciologist and a member of the research team analyzing the satellite data. "But if we continue to observe melting events like this in upcoming years, it will be worrisome."
Nghiem's finding while analyzing Oceansat-2 data was the kind of benefit that NASA and ISRO had hoped to stimulate when they signed an agreement in March 2012 to cooperate on Oceansat-2 by sharing data.
NASA's Earth Science News Team
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Source: NASA
Further information
Monday, June 18, 2012
Tidalites 2012, France
8th International Conference on Tidal Environments
July 28 - August 5, Caen, Normandy, France
3rd circularFurhter information
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Japan-UNESCO/UNU Symposium on The Great East Japan Tsunami on 11 March 2011 and Tsunami Warning Systems: Policy Perspectives
16 - 17 February 2012, Tokyo, Japan |
The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami on 11 March 2011 caused nearly 20,000 people to lose their lives.
Since the event many national and international post-tsunami field surveys have been carried out. Performance analyses of tsunami early warning systems in place at the time of this event have also been done. Based on these surveys and performance analyses the symposium will offer a number of invited high level perspectives from decision makers and scientists and address topics including:
- Event facts and analysis
- Tsunami Warning Systems, Tsunami preparedness and event experiences
- What has been learned from this event and policy implications.
Third Announcement of the Japan – UNESCO/UNU Symposium (English version)
More information here
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