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...
looked
We did not look at one or two glaciers. We looked at all of them.
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.
clearly result warming
This is clearly a result of warming around the periphery of Greenland.
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.
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.
concern effects polar raising
This is raising concern on the effects of the polar caps.
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 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.
generation greenland increase means percent producing sea
What it means right now is that Greenland is producing 20 percent of the sea rise. We think that contribution will increase from generation to generation.
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.
determine directly effected man warming whether
Whether the warming is effected by man is not something that we can directly determine with this study.
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.
additional expect further greenland increase level losses northwest sea warming
In the future, as warming around Greenland progresses further north, we expect additional losses from northwest Greenland glaciers, which will then increase Greenland's contribution to sea level rise.