Glaciers Contributing Same As Ice Sheet Melt To Sea Level Rise

Melt from Alaska's Columbia Glacier and other glaciers around the world contributed as much to global sea rise as the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets combined from 2003 and 2009.  Image Credit: Tad Pfeffer, University of Colorado
Melt from Alaska’s Columbia Glacier and other glaciers around the world contributed as much to global sea rise as the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets combined from 2003 and 2009.
Image Credit: Tad Pfeffer, University of Colorado

Research has found that approximately 99% of our planet’s land-locked ice is held up in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The remainder, however, is out in the open, located primarily in the glaciers dotted throughout the appropriate latitudes across the planet.

And according to new research, those glaciers contributed approximately the same amount of water to sea level rise as the two ice sheets combined between 2003 and 2009.

All glacial regions lost ice mass over the period studied, but the biggest losses happened in Arctic Canada, Alaska, coastal Greenland, the southern Andes, and the Himalayas, losing an estimated 260 billion metric tonnes of ice annually during the study period, causing the oceans to rise approximately 0.7 millimetres per year.

The study, led by Clark University and involving the University of Colorado Boulder compared traditional mound measurements to satellite data collected from NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE).

“For the first time, we’ve been able to very precisely constrain how much these glaciers as a whole are contributing to sea rise,” said geography Assistant Professor Alex Gardner of Clark University in Worcester, Mass., lead study author. “These smaller ice bodies are currently losing about as much mass as the ice sheets.”

“Because the global glacier ice mass is relatively small in comparison with the huge ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, people tend to not worry about it,” said CU-Boulder Professor Tad Pfeffer, a study co-author.  “But it’s like a little bucket with a huge hole in the bottom: it may not last for very long, just a century or two, but while there’s ice in those glaciers, it’s a major contributor to sea level rise,” said Pfeffer, a glaciologist at CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.

The University of Colorado Boulder explained the two ways in which the two satellite missions worked;

ICESat, which ceased operations in 2009, measured glacier changes using laser altimetry, which bounces laser pulses off the ice surface to determine changes in the height of ice cover. The GRACE satellite system, still operational, detects variations in Earth’s gravity field resulting from changes in the planet’s mass distribution, including ice displacements.

GRACE does not have a fine enough resolution and ICESat does not have sufficient sampling density to study small glaciers, but mass change estimates by the two satellite systems for large glaciated regions agree well, the scientists concluded.

“Because the two satellite techniques, ICESat and GRACE, are subject to completely different types of errors, the fact that their results are in such good agreement gives us increased confidence in those results,” said CU-Boulder physics Professor John Wahr, a study co-author and fellow at the university’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

2 thoughts on “Glaciers Contributing Same As Ice Sheet Melt To Sea Level Rise”

  1. PaulFelixSchott

    Truth Of What Is Shortly Too Come

    (” Some are now saying “)

    (” Current estimates show that the global average sea level is
    likely to rise by up to 3 feet by 2100, which would cause significant
    flooding problems for coastal cities “)

    This is immature and far from the truth more like ten times what is written above 30 feet + rise and long before 2100.

    Many Scientist, Noble Scholars and others all have been studying this for a long time now.
    Lately
    anyone who shows Light or Sings too Loud on the Truth Of What Is
    Shortly Too Come. Has a so called accident or is muzzled.

    Scientist spotlight the world’s ice and how fast it is going vanishing. Scientist Giles and others have
    noted through their studies most all ice on earth will be gone in the summers in the very
    near coming years 10 to 20 the most. In many places on Earth the Ice that once was thousands of feet thick year round.

    Scientist Dr. Katharine Giles was killed in a cycling collision in Victoria, London.
    She is the second person from her UCL department to die in an so called accident.

    Her death comes just three months after a senior colleague,
    Prof Seymour Laxon, 49, died in a fall, hitting his head and suffering a
    brain hemorrhage.

    Scientist Dr. Giles had done many experiments investigating “Sea Ice Thickness”,
    and
    showed to governments around the earth how the Sun rays and winds
    affected the newly exposed Arctic Ocean. Some of Scientist Dr.
    Giles research focused on using satellites to better
    understand the physics of the ice covered polar oceans.

    Scientist Dr. Giles to all Warning Water will warm faster then ICE.

    Dr.
    Giles and many other Scientist from around the Globe have been looking
    at Photos of before and after of the ice at the polls and Glaciers.
    Glacier Bay Alaska is a 60+ miles long fjord that once was a Glacier
    that was from Sea Level to top was over a thousand feet thick and over
    60 miles long, gone for ever.

    Scotland Yard’s report said the accident took place at the junction of
    Palace Street and Victoria Street, near Victoria Station, at 8.25am on Monday.

    Scientist Giles, from west London, was pronounced dead at the scene. The male driver of
    the HGV lorry stopped at the scene. He was not arrested.

    Any
    witnesses to this crime or INFO on it are asked to call the Road Death
    Investigation Unit at Catford, South-East London on
    020 8285 1574. or Email
    it to many News Networks. Do both would be better.

    Planting Trees would Do More Good then spending more of the tax
    payers money on things most all with a brain already know of. Making the
    poor support the rich is wicked.

    GOD Bless …. James E. Hansen and all …. that spotlight the truth.

    THIS COMET ((C/ 2012 S1 (ISON)) VERY WELL COULD BE THE RECURRED COMET EVERY 333 YEARS IT WILL BE HEAR

    DECEMBER 24 – 26, 2013

    1680AD

    (C/1680 V1) (GREAT COMET) (NEWTON’S COMET) (PASSED BY EARTH NOVEMBER 30, 1680) IT WAS THE BRIGHTEST IN DECEMBER

    1347AD

    BLACK
    DEATH COMET AFTER PASSING THROUGH ITS LONG TAIL OF (COMET NEGRA)

    1014AD

    VERY LARGE TIDAL WAVES THE LARGEST EVER RECORDED FROM IMPACTS,
    ALL OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN AFTER PASSING THROUGH ITS LONG TAIL. LEVELING WHOLE CITIES AND TOWN THAT WERE MILES INLAND.

    680 – 685AD

    IF THIS IS THAT COMET IT HAS BEEN SEEN FROM EARTH FOR MANY THOUSANDS OF YEARS.
    ITS TAIL LAST TIME AROUND WAS AT 90 TO 96,000,000 MILLION MILES LONG,
    EARTH IS ONLY 92,960,000 MILLION MILES FROM THE SUN. ITS TAIL IS MUCH LONGER EACH TIME IT COMES BACK. HOW LONG THIS TIME?

    As it was in Noah’s day nobody would listen to him giving the warning.
    Many thought it was funny till the rain water from the Comet would not stop for days on end.
    Very Sad for many will be sorry.

    Pray for your love ones and lead them to our LORD while you can.

    Matthew 24:37

    The Lord’s Little Helper
    Paul Felix Schott

    PS

    Earth will be going right through its tail path in January 14-16, 2014

    Look at the Photo described below on the computer, the two below have been warning the world for many years.

    Photo of The World’s Most Leading Authority on HYDROGEN Scientist Dr. Addison Bain and Young Scientist in training

    Monica D. Key Lindbergh and the first Hydrogen car on Earth that Dr. Bain built for NASA.

    Dr. Bain and Monica have been for years promoting Albert Einstein Dream, all on Earth will someday soon use Solar Energy.

  2. Paul Felix Schott

    Truth Of What Is Shortly Too Come

    (” Some are now saying “)

    (” Current estimates show that the global average sea level is
    likely to rise by up to 3 feet by 2100, which would cause significant
    flooding problems for coastal cities “)

    This is immature and far from the truth more like ten times what is written above 30 feet + rise and long before 2100.

    Many Scientist, Noble Scholars and others all have been studying this for a long time now.
    Lately
    anyone who shows Light or Sings too Loud on the Truth Of What Is
    Shortly Too Come. Has a so called accident or is muzzled.

    Scientist spotlight the world’s ice and how fast it is going vanishing. Scientist Giles and others have
    noted through their studies most all ice on earth will be gone in the summers in the very
    near coming years 10 to 20 the most. In many places on Earth the Ice that once was thousands of feet thick year round.

    Scientist Dr. Katharine Giles was killed in a cycling collision in Victoria, London.
    She is the second person from her UCL department to die in an so called accident.

    Her death comes just three months after a senior colleague,
    Prof Seymour Laxon, 49, died in a fall, hitting his head and suffering a
    brain hemorrhage.

    Scientist Dr. Giles had done many experiments investigating “Sea Ice Thickness”,
    and
    showed to governments around the earth how the Sun rays and winds
    affected the newly exposed Arctic Ocean. Some of Scientist Dr.
    Giles research focused on using satellites to better
    understand the physics of the ice covered polar oceans.

    Scientist Dr. Giles to all Warning Water will warm faster then ICE.

    Dr.
    Giles and many other Scientist from around the Globe have been looking
    at Photos of before and after of the ice at the polls and Glaciers.
    Glacier Bay Alaska is a 60+ miles long fjord that once was a Glacier
    that was from Sea Level to top was over a thousand feet thick and over
    60 miles long, gone for ever.

    Scotland Yard’s report said the accident took place at the junction of
    Palace Street and Victoria Street, near Victoria Station, at 8.25am on Monday.

    Scientist Giles, from west London, was pronounced dead at the scene. The male driver of
    the HGV lorry stopped at the scene. He was not arrested.

    Any
    witnesses to this crime or INFO on it are asked to call the Road Death
    Investigation Unit at Catford, South-East London on
    020 8285 1574. or Email
    it to many News Networks. Do both would be better.

    Planting Trees would Do More Good then spending more of the tax
    payers money on things most all with a brain already know of. Making the
    poor support the rich is wicked.

    GOD Bless …. James E. Hansen and all …. that spotlight the truth.

    THIS COMET ((C/ 2012 S1 (ISON)) VERY WELL COULD BE THE RECURRED COMET EVERY 333 YEARS IT WILL BE HEAR

    DECEMBER 24 – 26, 2013

    1680AD

    (C/1680 V1) (GREAT COMET) (NEWTON’S COMET) (PASSED BY EARTH NOVEMBER 30, 1680) IT WAS THE BRIGHTEST IN DECEMBER

    1347AD

    BLACK
    DEATH COMET AFTER PASSING THROUGH ITS LONG TAIL OF (COMET NEGRA)

    1014AD

    VERY LARGE TIDAL WAVES THE LARGEST EVER RECORDED FROM IMPACTS,
    ALL OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN AFTER PASSING THROUGH ITS LONG TAIL. LEVELING WHOLE CITIES AND TOWN THAT WERE MILES INLAND.

    680 – 685AD

    IF THIS IS THAT COMET IT HAS BEEN SEEN FROM EARTH FOR MANY THOUSANDS OF YEARS.
    ITS TAIL LAST TIME AROUND WAS AT 90 TO 96,000,000 MILLION MILES LONG,
    EARTH IS ONLY 92,960,000 MILLION MILES FROM THE SUN. ITS TAIL IS MUCH LONGER EACH TIME IT COMES BACK. HOW LONG THIS TIME?

    As it was in Noah’s day nobody would listen to him giving the warning.
    Many thought it was funny till the rain water from the Comet would not stop for days on end.
    Very Sad for many will be sorry.

    Pray for your love ones and lead them to our LORD while you can.

    Matthew 24:37

    The Lord’s Little Helper
    Paul Felix Schott

    PS

    Earth will be going right through its tail path in January 14-16, 2014

    Look at the Photo described below on the computer, the two below have been warning the world for many years.

    Photo of The World’s Most Leading Authority on HYDROGEN Scientist Dr. Addison Bain and Young Scientist in training

    Monica D. Key Lindbergh and the first Hydrogen car on Earth that Dr. Bain built for NASA.

    Dr. Bain and Monica have been for years promoting Albert Einstein Dream, all on Earth will someday soon use Solar Energy.

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