Pine Island Glacier region focus of many research studiesPage 2/2 - Posted April 17, 2009
The results come at a time of increased interest in the polar regions thanks to a series of recent studies that warn Antarctica is more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought. NASA More recently, in February and March of this year during separate meetings of scientists in Europe, researchers reported that current estimates of sea-level rise appear too low. The International Scientific Congress on Climate Change “The numbers from the last IPCC are lower … because it was recognized at the time that there was a lot of uncertainty about ice sheets,” said Rignot in a release from the Copenhagen meeting. He and Konrad Steffen “As a result of the acceleration of outlet glaciers over large regions, the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are already contributing more and faster to sea level rise than anticipated,” added Rignot, a professor of Earth System Science Another scientist with NASA but with support from the National Science Foundation Jacobs said it is likely the CDW has been coming on the Antarctic continental shelf in the southeast Pacific for quite some time, as records dating back more than a century in the Bellingshausen Sea report similar water temperatures as today. What may be different, he said, is the volume of water being drawn onto the shelf, possibly due to changes in atmospheric circulation. The researchers expect to return in 2011 to retrieve the 14 moorings deployed during this cruise, and hope the data they record can help answer some of the questions about the CDW. More immediate information may come from an ice-tethered profiler (ITP) The ITP consists of a cylindrical capsule, outfitted with oceanographic sensors that slide up and down on a line attached to a small capsule anchored on the surface of an ice floe. A weight at the bottom helps keep the line vertical. The instrument, the first of its kind used in the Antarctic, transmits measurements to the scientists in near-real time. The scientists had a difficult time finding a suitable place for the ITP system because of the low ice cover this season, and the ‘fast’ ice on which the ITP was tethered has since gone adrift. But the good weather was a blessing in every other way, particularly for using the British autosub, Jacobs said. NSF-funded research in this story: Stan Jacobs, Adrian Jenkins and Hartmut Hellmer, Columbia University, Award No. 0632282 |