Eric Rignot
Eric Rignot
Eric Rignot is Professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine, and principal scientist for the Radar Science and Engineering Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory...
few flow grow ice increased might overall process rates sheets winning
A few years back, we thought ice sheets might grow because of increased precipitation. Now we see that rates of glacier flow are changing. We think the process that is winning overall is the rate of glacier flow.
climate flow generally ice warming work
Climate warming can work in different ways, but generally speaking, if you warm up the ice sheet, the glacier will flow faster.
actual call changes climate component computer flow future greenland include larger likely models predicted question variations warmer
These findings call into question predictions of the future of Greenland in a warmer climate from computer models that do not include variations in glacier flow as a component of change. Actual changes will likely be much larger than predicted by these models.
magnitude surprised
What surprised us was the magnitude of the changes.
coming glaciers seen
We don't think these are just bursts. We haven't seen any of these glaciers coming back to normal.
climate greenland half northern reacting southern waiting
The southern half of Greenland is reacting to what we think is climate warming. The northern half is waiting but I don't think it's going to take long.
dominant found ice response
What we found is this is probably the dominant response of the ice sheets.
along coasts effect ice level measurable melting result sea storms
I don't think it will effect Californians immediately, It will effect storms along the coasts and we will see a measurable effect at sea level as a result of melting ice caps.
although clearly enormous result time understand warming
We are witnessing enormous changes, and it will take some time before we understand how it happened, although it is clearly a result of warming around the glaciers.
contribute faster greenland levels likely rising sea
It's likely that Greenland is going to contribute more and faster to rising sea levels than previously estimated.
aspect behavior build changing dump evolve glaciers ice melt quickly react sea sheet takes time understanding
The behavior of the glaciers that dump ice into the sea is the most important aspect of understanding how an ice sheet will evolve in a changing climate. It takes a long time to build and melt an ice sheet, but glaciers can react quickly to temperature changes.
build glaciers ice melt quickly react takes time
It takes a long time to build and melt an ice sheet, but glaciers can react quickly to temperature changes.
looked
We did not look at one or two glaciers. We looked at all of them.
determine directly effected man warming whether
Whether the warming is effected by man is not something that we can directly determine with this study.