Live
- AR Rahman’s ‘Aadujeevitham’ Music Nominated Twice at 2024 Hollywood Awards
- NBK’s action drama ‘Daaku Maharaaj’ unveiled with power-packed teaser
- Nehru’s services unforgettable : Veerlapalli
- ROB ready by March-end
- 30.1-9-49-10 – Anshul Kamboj picks up all 10 wickets in Haryana vs Kerala Ranji Trophy match
- South Korean FM Cho, Blinken hold talks on margins of APEC summit in Peru
- India’s insurance sector growth surpasses China, Thailand: McKinsey
- CLOSE-IN: Indian cricketers from Paupers to Princelings
- Delhi-NCR's air quality remains hazardous for residents
- South Korea, US, Japan to announce establishment of trilateral secretariat this week
Climate change altering Greenland ice sheet
Greenland\'s ice sheet has traditionally been pictured as a bit of a sponge for glacier meltwater, but new research has found that climate change is changing its structure, thereby reducing its ability to buffer its contribution to rising sea levels. For the study, the researchers analysed data from three expeditions to the Greenland ice sheet in 2012, 2013 and 2015.
Toronto: Greenland's ice sheet has traditionally been pictured as a bit of a sponge for glacier meltwater, but new research has found that climate change is changing its structure, thereby reducing its ability to buffer its contribution to rising sea levels. For the study, the researchers analysed data from three expeditions to the Greenland ice sheet in 2012, 2013 and 2015.
The project involved drilling firn cores in the interior of the Greenland ice sheet. Firn is multi-year compacted snow that is not as dense as glacier ice. Instead, it forms a porous near-surface layer over the ice sheet. "The study looked at very recent climate change on the ice sheet, how the last couple of years of melt have really altered the structure of the ice sheet firn and made it behave differently to future melt," said study co-author William Colgan, professor at York University in Toronto, Canada.
The team set up several camps and drilled a series of shallow firn cores about 20 metres deep during their time on the ice sheet. They were surprised by what they found. An extreme melt that occurred in 2012 caused a layer of solid ice, several metres thick, to form on top of the porous firn in the low elevation areas of the ice sheet.
Because the models scientists use to project Greenland's sea level rise contribution do not presently take firn cap-off into consideration, it means that Greenland's projected sea level rise due to melt water runoff is likely higher than previously predicted.
