Topic 1b - The role of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the climate system
The Greenland ice sheet plays a significant role in helping to maintain the delicate balance of the global climate system. Its enormity and the quantity of freshwater it holds, means that any significant melt of the ice sheet could have enormous consequences for ocean salinity and global sea levels. What is perhaps less understood in the general public is the complexity of the feedback loops and knock-on consequences that can result from these more well-known impacts.
In this video, Professor Konrad Steffen and Professor Andrew Shepherd provide an initial introduction to some of those complexities and potential consequences.
Optional Mini Task:
Download the NASA Visualization Explorer app for Android and Apple devices and select shrinking sea ice to explore data on sea ice. What do the data and animations show? How does sea ice vary depending on season?
Featured Educators:
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Professor Konrad Steffen
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Professor Andrew Shepherd
Don’t forget you can download the video, transcript and take any quizzes available with the links on the right.
Imagery
An iceberg floats in Disko Bay, near Ilulissat, Greenland, on July 24, 2015. The massive Greenland ice sheet is shedding about 300 gigatons of ice a year into the ocean, making it the single largest source of sea level rise from melting ice.
NASA/Saskia Madlener
Ice velocity map of Greenland derived from Sentinel-1 SAR data acquired from 2016-12-23 to 2017-02-27. From the Greenland Ice Sheet CCI project.
ENVEO
Animation soil moisture and ocean salinity from SMOS. To view the video click on the source link below.
ESA
global monthly averages of soil moisture in the early 1980s in litres per m3, followed by changes in global soil moisture to 2012. The full video can be found using the link below.
ESA / ITC / TU Wien / VU Amsterdam / DWD / KNMI / Planetary Vision
