NASA observations show the dynamism of Greenland's Ice sheet in the changing elevation of its surfaces. Recent analysis of seven years of readings from NASA's ICESat satellite and four years of laser and and ice-penetrating radar data from NASA's airborne mission Operation IceBridge shows the changes taking place.
In the animation featured below, the colors shown on the surface of the ice sheet represent the accumulated change in elevation since 2003. The light yellow over the central region of the ice sheet indicates a slight thickening due to snow. This accumulation, along with the weight of the ice sheet, pushes ice toward the coast. Thinning near coastal regions, shown in green, blue and purple, has increased over time and now extends into the interior of the ice sheet where the bedrock topography permits. As a result, there has been an average loss of 300 cubic kilometers of ice per year between 2003 and 2012.
This animation portrays the changes occurring in the surface elevation of the ice sheet since 2003 in three drainage regions: the southeast, the northeast and the Jakobshavn regions. In each region, the time advances to show the accumulated change in elevation from 2003 through 2012.
“The retreat of these glacier is likely to increase sea-level rise for decades to come, collapse of the entire basin is going to take a long time, But it’s a process, when you start, you don’t see the glacier recovering.”
Published on Mar 27, 2014
