Denver Greenland’s  major  glacier  sees ‘temporary’  growth,  however  its  future  stays  bleak –  International  News

Denver Greenland’s major glacier sees ‘temporary’ growth, however its future stays bleak – International News

By Anne Rowe for DPS board, March 28, 2019

Denver A major Greenland glacier that was one of the fastest diminishing ice and snow masses on Earth is growing again, a brand-new NASA research study finds. The Jakobshavn (YA-cob-shawv-en) glacier around 2012 was pulling away about 3 kilometres and thinning nearly 40 metres each year. However it began growing again at about the very same rate in the past two years, according to a study in Monday’s Nature Geoscience. Study authors and outside scientists believe this is momentary. READ MORE: How do we change the conversation about environment modification — and start doing more about it? “That was kind of a surprise. We kind of got used to a runaway system,” stated Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland ice and climate researcher Jason Box. “The good news is that it’s a suggestion that it’s not always going that quick. However it is going.” Box, who wasn’t part of the study, said Jakobshavn is “arguably the most crucial Greenland glacier since it discharges the most ice in the northern hemisphere. For all of Greenland, it is king.” WATCH BELOW: Ice climber describes studying glaciers in Greenland A natural cyclical cooling of North Atlantic waters most likely caused the glacier to reverse course, stated research study lead author Ala Khazendar, a NASA glaciologist on the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) task. Khazendar and associates say this coincides with a flip of the North Atlantic Oscillation — a natural and temporary cooling and warming of parts of the ocean that is like a far-off cousin to El Nino in the Pacific. The water in Disko Bay, where Jakobshavn strikes the ocean, is about 2 degrees Celsius cooler than a couple of years ago, research study authors said. READ MORE: Evidence for human-caused climate change reaches clinical ‘gold basic’ While this is “good news” on a short-term basis, this is bad news on the long term due to the fact that it informs scientists that ocean temperature level is a bigger player in glacier retreats and advances than previously believed, stated NASA climate scientist Josh Willis, a research study co-author. Over the years the water has actually been and will be warming from manufactured environment modification, he stated, keeping in mind that about 90 per cent of the heat caught by greenhouse gases goes into the oceans. “In the long run we’ll probably have to raise our forecasts of sea level rise once again,” Willis stated. Believe of the ocean temperatures near Greenland like an escalator that’s increasing gradually from worldwide warming, Khazendar said. However the natural North Atlantic Oscillation in some cases is like leaping down a few actions or leaping up a few actions. The water can get cooler and have impacts, however in the long run it is getting warmer and the melting will be even worse, he said. WATCH BELOW: Researchers state 2018 was one of the warmest years on record 4 outside researchers said the research study and results make sense. University of Washington ice scientist Ian Joughin, who wasn’t part of the study and predicted such a modification 7 years ago, said it would be a “grave error” to translate the most current information as opposing climate modification science. What’s occurring, Joughin said, is “to a large level, a momentary blip. Declines do happen in the stock market, but general the long term trajectory is up. This is truly the very same thing.”
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