” The outcomes include to growing documentation that glaciers in the Arctic are reacting rapidly to rising temperature due to human-caused environment modification. This is concerning due to the fact that their meltwater contributes to global water level increase,” states Jason Briner, professor of geology, College of Arts and Sciences, and co-author on the research study, which was published recently in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Historic Aerial Photographs: A Key to Understanding Glacier History.
Prior to the launch of Earth-observing satellites in the 1970s, researchers did not have a complete understanding of how temperature modifications impacted Greenlands glaciers. Widespread and detailed observational records merely did not exist– or two researchers thought..
A breakthrough came about 15 years ago when long-forgotten aerial photographs of Greenlands coastline were found in a castle outside Copenhagen..
” Starting in the 1930s, Danish pilots outfitted in polar bear-fur matches set out on aerial mapping campaigns of Greenland and ended up collecting over 200,000 images of the islands shoreline,” says the research studys first author, Laura Larocca, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate & & Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow who was a PhD prospect at Northwestern University when the research study started in 2018. “They likewise accidentally caught the state of Greenlands peripheral glaciers.”.
The images made it possible for Anders Bjørk, the research studys senior author and assistant teacher at the University of Copenhagen, to begin building the glaciers history.
In previous studies, Bjørk and his collaborators digitized and analyzed photos to study 361 glaciers in the southeast, northwest, and northeast regions of Greenland. In the new research study, the group led by Northwestern added records for 821 more glaciers in the south, north, and west areas, and extended Bjørks records to present day.
A Comprehensive Glacial History.
As a part of this effort, the team digitized thousands of paper-copy aerial pictures drawn from open-cockpit airplanes and collected images from multiple satellites. The scientists likewise got rid of terrain distortion and used geo-referencing techniques to put the pictures at the appropriate places on Earth.
Recommendation: “Greenland-wide sped up retreat of peripheral glaciers in the twenty-first century” by L. J. Larocca, M. Twining– Ward, Y. Axford, A. D. Schweinsberg, S. H. Larsen, A. Westergaard– Nielsen, G. Luetzenburg, J. P. Briner, K. K. Kjeldsen and A. A. Bjørk, 9 November 2023, Nature Climate Change.DOI: 10.1038/ s41558-023-01855-6Avriel Schweinsberg, who got her PhD from UB in 2018, is also a co-author on the study.The research study was supported by the National Science Foundations (NSF) Geography and Spatial Sciences Program, NSF Polar Programs, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Researchs Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science, and the Villum Foundation.
Scientists, including those from the University at Buffalo, have found that Greenlands peripheral glaciers are pulling away at an alarming rate, with the 21st-century retreat rate doubling compared to the 20th century. This finding, originated from satellite and historical aerial information, highlights the glaciers fast action to climate modification and the ensuing risk of increasing sea levels.Greenlands peripheral glaciers are pulling back quickly, with recent research studies showing a considerable velocity in the 21st century. This highlights the immediate requirement to address climate modification to mitigate its influence on sea levels.
Greenlands countless peripheral glaciers have actually entered a brand-new and widespread state of fast retreat, a study including University at Buffalo (UB) researchers has actually found.
Integrating satellite images with historical aerial photographs of Greenlands shoreline, a research team led by Northwestern University and the University of Copenhagen figured out that the rate of glacial retreat during the 21st century is two times as quick as retreat during the 20th century..
The team extended records further back in time by leveraging ideas hidden within the landscape. When glaciers grow bigger and after that retreat, they leave behind a terminal moraine– sediment carried and transferred by a glacier, often in the type of a long ridge. Finding these moraines made it possible for the researchers to map older glacier degrees before pilots took their first flyover pictures in the early 1930s.
Altogether, this one-of-a-kind information files modifications in the lengths of more than 1,000 of the nations glaciers from 1890 to 2022.
” Its quite amazing that we can now provide long-lasting records for numerous glaciers, finally giving us a chance to document Greenland-wide glacier response to environment modification over more than a century,” says senior author Yarrow Axford, William Deering Professor of Geological Sciences in Northwesterns Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
Findings: Significant Glacial Length Loss.
Using the late 20th-century images as a baseline, the team calculated the percentage of length that glaciers have actually lost over the previous 20 years. They found that, on average, glaciers in south Greenland lost 18% of their lengths, while glaciers in other areas lost between 5-10% of their lengths over the previous 20 years. The only major possible exception are glaciers in northeast Greenland, where current boosts in snowfall may be slowing retreat.
Peripheral glaciers represent only 4% of Greenlands total ice-covered area but contribute 14% of the islands current ice loss.
” These glaciers, offered their comparably smaller sized size, are the real canaries in the coal mine– they react extremely rapidly to Arctic warming,” Briner says. “Most forecasts of future sea level rise show that mankind still manages the knob. Quick action can stabilize temperature and water level modification after some in-the-pipeline modification plays out.”.
Scientists, including those from the University at Buffalo, have actually found that Greenlands peripheral glaciers are pulling away at an alarming rate, with the 21st-century retreat rate doubling compared to the 20th century. This finding, obtained from satellite and historic aerial information, highlights the glaciers quick action to climate modification and the consequent risk of rising sea levels.Greenlands peripheral glaciers are pulling away rapidly, with recent studies revealing a considerable acceleration in the 21st century. When glaciers grow bigger and then retreat, they leave behind a terminal moraine– sediment transferred and transferred by a glacier, often in the form of a long ridge. They found that, on average, glaciers in south Greenland lost 18% of their lengths, while glaciers in other areas lost in between 5-10% of their lengths over the past 20 years. The only major possible exception are glaciers in northeast Greenland, where current boosts in snowfall might be slowing retreat.