Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier Reacts to Changing Ocean Temperatures

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

22-year Sea Level Rise

This visualization shows total sea level change between 1992 and 2014, based on data collected from the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellites. Blue regions are where sea level has gone down, and orange/red regions are where sea level has gone up. Since 1992, seas around the world have risen an average of nearly 3 inches.

Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

New Study Finds Sea Level Rise Accelerating

Global sea level rise is accelerating incrementally over time rather than increasing at a steady rate, as previously thought, according to a new study based on 25 years of NASA and European satellite data.

If the rate of ocean rise continues to change at this pace, sea level will rise 26 inches (65 centimeters) by 2100—enough to cause significant problems for coastal cities.

Full story: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2680/new-study-finds-sea-level-rise-accelerating/

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center