NASA Sensing Our Planet 2012 released
Glaciers remain the subject of considerable scientific study. Here you’ll find some of the most cutting edge research concerning these harbingers of change and the message they are trying to send us.
Will the Arctic be free of summer ice in 30 years?
Interesting materials on glaciers and ice
Arctic sea ice loss is occuring 30 years earlier than was anticipated...
Recent Arctic sea ice coverage is the lowest in the satellite record (since 1979) and is occurring at least 30 years earlier than was anticipated in the recent assessment report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In this year's collection, researchers in Alaska search the Arctic for odd methane bubbles suspended in lake ice; a NASA researcher posits that the extreme heat wave in Russia in 2010 caused the unusual storms and flooding in Pakistan thousands of miles away; and researchers combine data from fishermen's logbooks, satellite data, and game theory to project the fate of the tuna in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Icelandic glaciers and climate - Iceland is a glaciated country. Approximately 11% of Iceland’s total area of roughly 100.000 km2 is covered by glaciers (Figure 1). The largest ice caps in Iceland are located in the southern and central highlands.
The majority of glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in central Asia are shrinking rapidly, according to a comprehensive study published this year in the Nature Climate Change journal.
Photographer Sean Gallagher recently visited the region to document how rising temperatures have affected the vulnerable communities and ecosystems on “the roof of the world.”
Icelandic glaciers and climate
Climate change on the Tibetan Plateau
Yosemite
National Park
California
Frazil Ice
Summertime visitors to Yosemite National Parkin America miss many of the unique events of winter and early spring. Frazil ice flows are dramatic natural events that occur in the waterfalls of Yosemite Valley during March and April.
Global outlook for ice & snow provides an up-to-date, concise review of the state of the environment and the trends in ice and snow-covered regions (cryosphere) of the world. It features case studies, illustrations, graphics and maps and serves as an educational and reference publication. With a broad target audience that includes decision-makers at many levels, the report looks at the significance of changes in the cryosphere to human well-being and the implications for policy.
Impact of Climate Change on Himalayan Glaciers and Glacial Lakes: Case Studies on GLOF and Associated Hazards in Nepal and Bhutan (2007)
ICIMOD
(Case Studies)
Global Outlook for Ice and Snow
(UNEP report)
The Big Thaw
Peru's Quelccaya ice cap is the largest in the tropics. If it continues to melt at its current rate, contracting more than 600 feet (182.8 meters) a year in some places, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands who rely on its water for drinking and electricity high, dry, and in the dark.
Signs From Earth:The Big Thaw
The world's thickest ice sheet may be at greater risk from variations in the climate than previously believed.
Scientists found that glaciers on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) advance and retreat in synch with changes in temperature.
Since it contains enough water to raise global sea levels by over 50m, there is an urgent need to study the threat the researchers said.
The research has been published in the journal Nature.
East Antarctic ice sheet 'vulnerable' to temperature changes
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Mont. — What will they call this place once the glaciers are gone?
A century ago, this sweep of mountains on the Canadian border boasted some 150 ice sheets, many of them scores of feet thick, plastered across summits and tucked into rocky fissures high above parabolic valleys. Today, perhaps 25 survive.
In 30 years, there may be none.
