UC Irvine-led team uncovers 'vigorous melting' at Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://news.uci.edu/2024/05/20/uc-irvine-led-team-uncovers-vigorous-melting-at-antarcticas-thwaites-glacier/

May 20, 2024
UC Irvine-led team uncovers ‘vigorous melting’ at Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier
Satellite radar data show kilometer-scale seawater intrusion, causing ice to rise and fall

Irvine, Calif., May 20, 2024 — A team of glaciologists led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine used high-resolution satellite radar data to find evidence of the intrusion of warm, high-pressure seawater many kilometers beneath the grounded ice of West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier.

In a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the UC Irvine-led team said that widespread contact between ocean water and the glacier – a process that is replicated throughout Antarctica and in Greenland – causes “vigorous melting” and may require a reassessment of global sea level rise projections.

The glaciologists relied on data gathered from March to June of 2023 by Finland’s ICEYE commercial satellite mission. The ICEYE satellites form a “constellation” in polar orbit around the planet, using InSAR – interferometer synthetic aperture radar – to persistently monitor changes on the Earth’s surface. Many passes by a spacecraft over a small, defined area render smooth data results. In the case of this study, it showed the rise, fall and bending of Thwaites Glacier.

“These ICEYE data provided a long-time series of daily observations closely conforming to tidal cycles,” said lead author Eric Rignot, UC Irvine professor of Earth system science. “In the past, we had some sporadically available data, and with just those few observations it was hard to figure out what was happening. When we have a continuous time series and compare that with the tidal cycle, we see the seawater coming in at high tide and receding and sometimes going farther up underneath the glacier and getting trapped. Thanks to ICEYE, we’re beginning to witness this tidal dynamic for the first time.”

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I”m sure it’s nothing…

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. James Hansen et al: Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127173955

[Bundbuster]

2. Another article from Salon

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/23/scientists-worry-so-called-doomsday-glacier-is-near-collapse-satellite-data-reveals/?in_brief=true

Miles and miles below the surface, the glacier is destabilizing as ocean water rushes underneath its core structures. Scientists learned this thanks to high-resolution satellite radar data that shows Thwaites is being flooded with warm sea water, according to the study published in the journal PNAS.

Thwaites is the world's widest glacier, spanning approximately 80 miles and reaching depths of roughly 2,600 to 3,900 feet, or roughly the same size as the state of Florida. It rests on downward sloping land and is therefore vulnerable to the ocean's eroding effects. Thwaites already single-handedly contributes to four percent of the world's total sea level rise, and if it entirely collapses, global sea levels will rise by more than ten feet.

"The rushing of seawater beneath grounded ice over considerable distances makes the glacier more vulnerable to melting from a warmer ocean than anticipated, which in turn will increase projections of ice mass loss," the study's authors write. As UC Irvine professor and lead author Eric Rignot said to CBS News, "We see the seawater coming in at high tide and receding and sometimes going farther up underneath the glacier and getting trapped."