NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) mission uses ships and planes to measure how ocean temperatures affect Greenland’s vast icy expanses. Jakobshavn Glacier, known in Greenlandic as Sermeq Kujalle, on Greenland’s central western side, has been one of the island’s largest contributor’s to sea level rise, losing mass at an accelerating rate.
In a new study, the OMG team found that between 2016 and 2017, Jakobshavn Glacier grew slightly and the rate of mass loss slowed down. They traced the causes of this thickening to a temporary cooling of ocean temperatures in the region.
Narrated by OMG Principal Investigator Josh Willis. Music: Rising Tides by Rainman [PRS] Complete transcript available. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Kathryn Mersmann
2018 was the fourth hottest year on record. Earth has been warming up for decades. The last five years are the hottest five years on record and the last four were all more than 1 degree Celsius, warmer than the 19th Century average.
A warmer climate contributes to melting polar ice and mountain glaciers, rising sea levels, more severe droughts, longer fire seasons.
NASA and NOAA work together to study the temperature from weather stations, ships and buoys in the ocean, and Antarctic research stations.
Credits: Kathryn Mersmann (USRA): Lead Producer Ellen T. Gray (ADNET Systems Inc.): Lead Writer Patrick Lynch (NASA/GSFC): Lead Public Affairs Officer Gavin A. Schmidt (NASA/GSFC GISS): Lead Scientist
