Climate change causes A much more pronounced melting of the glaciers of the Arctic island of Greenland than previously thought. New data from a group of researchers at the Oden Institute of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Texas (USA) actually large blocks of ice are melting 100 times faster than ever calculated.
The results of this new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Lettersthey completely change the concept of melting in this part of the world. “For years, people have taken the melting rate model of Antarctic floating glaciers and applied it to the vertical fronts of Greenland glaciers.”said Schultz. Kristin Shulz says, “This was the best we could do, given the limited observations. Was it true or false, who knew? But there is increasing evidence that the traditional approach produces very low melting rates on the vertical fronts of Greenland glaciers,” says Kristin Shulz. Researcher at the University of Texas Oden Institute.
Moving computations from Antarctica to Greenland, patch To understand this phenomenon. After all, in Greenland there was an operational problem and one of these glaciers was in danger of collapsing. was so high that most oceanographers avoided going near the area to investigate. The problem is that both systems, Antarctica and the Arctic, are very different.
Using data in Alaska
Schulz and co-authors An T. Nguyen and Helen Pillar took a different path. When designing your model, They combined the unique physics of Greenland glacial fronts and fed it with data taken ever closer to a vertical glacial front.
Four years ago, University of New Jersey researcher Rebecca Jackson wanted to get closer to glaciers than anyone had ever done before to collect data. She removed the human factor to fulfill this mission: It sent robotic canoes equipped with dozens of oceanographic sensors just 400 meters from Alaska’s imposing LeConte Glacier.
Looking at the Schulz data, he decided to join forces with two other researchers and innovate to create a much more advanced and field-appropriate model. Using data collected by Jackson, they designed a new model that incorporates information about the unique physics that govern the motion of Greenland glacial fronts (such as how steeply they fall until they hit the ocean). What they found is that one of these glaciers in Alaska, it was melting 100 times faster than previously thought.
“The implications of this new climate-ocean model are very relevant,” insists Schulz, emphasizing that it will be a “better tool for humanity to predict trends associated with climate change.”
In recent years, overwhelming evidence of the impact of climate change in the Arctic has caused many studies to revise their results so far. In another study published in August of this year, Nature Communicationtemperatures were found. This part of the world was rising at a dizzying pace: four times more than the rest of the world, and not twice as many believed.
Using satellite data collected between 1979 and 2021, the analysis confirmed that warming is more intense in this region due to a phenomenon called ‘Arctic amplification’, where the region warms by two to three times on average. the rest of the planet. The melting of permafrost and ice sheet, high temperatures at sea and absence of storms are the main harbingers of this unique phenomenon on the planet.
Reference work: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL100654
Contact address of the environment department: [email protected]