Ask A Climate Scientist - Thinning Ice Sheets
- Produced by:
- Matthew Radcliff
- View full credits
Dr. Kelly Brunt explains that Greenland's ice sheet is thinning, and while it is still over 10,000 feet thick, the melt water is contributing to sea level rise.
For complete transcript, click here.
This was the question posed to polar scientist Kelly Brunt as part of NASA's Ask A Climate Scientist series.
According to Dr. Brunt, this is a great question because it addresses the concept of thickness, which is very important to polar scientists. It is easy to see that the ice sheets and sea ice are changing horizontally, covering less and less of the polar regions. But the ice is also thinning, getting smaller vertically.
Dr. Brunt compares the situation to walking outside on a really cold day. When the air temperature is very cold, it will still take a while for her core body temperature to drop. Her skin may be chilly, but it will take time for that cold to work deep inside.
Conversely, Greenland's ice is very thick and only the outer layer is experiencing the warming temperatures. But that layer is melting more often and a little bit of melting over such a large area produces a lot of extra water contributing to sea level rise.
See more of NASA's answers to your questions on climate science.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Editors
- Matthew Radcliff (KBRwyle)
- Michael Randazzo (AIMM)
Scientist
- Kelly Brunt (Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center/University of Maryland)
Producer
- Matthew Radcliff (KBRwyle) [Lead]
Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Tapes
This visualization originally appeared on the following tapes:- None
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