Greenland Melt Accelerating

Terra Daily ^ | 12/12/2007 | Staff Writers

[cogitator]

See my profile, point #8.

[cogitator]

Does this threaten the “conveyor belt”?

Probably not.

[Lady Jag]

I know.

[cogitator]

Chapter 5 Observations: Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level (PDF)

[cogitator]

The IPCC sea level numbers

From the IPCC, courtesy of the link above: "Models used to date do not include uncertainties in climate-carbon cycle feedback nor do they include the full effects of changes in ice sheet flow, because a basis in published literature is lacking. The projections include a contribution due to increased ice flow from Greenland and Antarctica at the rates observed for 1993-2003, but these flow rates could increase or decrease in the future. For example, if this contribution were to grow linearly with global average temperature change, the upper ranges of sea level rise for SRES scenarios shown in Table SPM-3 would increase by 0.1 m to 0.2 m. Larger values cannot be excluded, but understanding of these effects is too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate or an upper bound for sea level rise. {10.6}"

[crazyshrink]

I am excited about this ice melt. We know Greenland used to be ice free and have vineyards. There is a chance some very good (and old) wine will be uncovered.

We need to encourage as much of this global warming as possible to help offset the pending ice-age predicted by IPCC’s Hansen in the 70’s.

[Old Professer]

Some interesting notes on satellite sea-level measuring and its topography as a dynamic phenomenon from the BBC:

But it is not only the thermal energy stored deep within the oceans that causes the variation in sea level, gravity also has an influence.

The subterranean geology is not uniform, some regions are more dense than others. This causes a subtle but significant shift in the Earth's gravitational force.

To measure the influence of gravity and its impact on ocean topography and currents, the European Space Agency (Esa) plans to launch an arrow-like satellite called the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (Goce).

'Arrow' to map Earth's tug

"If we want to improve our climate models then we need to improve our knowledge of how the oceans move, and Goce will help us do that," mission scientist Dr Mark Drinkwater, from Esa, told BBC News.

By combining the data gathered by Goce and Jason-2, meteorologists and climate scientists will advance their understanding of the physical factors influencing the oceans and atmosphere.

Jason-2 is the latest addition to a series of satellites fitted with altimeters to map the sea surface.

The first, Topex/Poseidon, was launched in 1992 as an experiment to assess the effectiveness of high-accuracy altimeters to measure ocean dynamics from space.

Its success paved the way for the Jason-1/Poseidon-2 mission, launched in 2001.

Lessons learned from the previous missions have allowed the team building the Poseidon altimeter instrument for Jason-2 to improve its accuracy and reduce the margin of uncertainty to within 2.5cm.

Doesn't say how much more accurate than 1" they have managed yet, but at 2.5cm error allowance, your graph that I could not find on the site even after translating to English, the 3cm trending rise could be from 5.5 to .5cm. I'd like a link to the accompanying text of your jpg clip.

[ohioman]

I see that Al Gore’s favorite toadie is back - ‘ole Cagitater.

Just remember everybody, Man-made Global Warming is real and it’s your damn fault! (sarcasm off)

[avacado]

"The projections include a contribution due to increased ice flow from Greenland and Antarctica at the rates observed for 1993-2003, but these flow rates could increase or decrease in the future."

Which suggests nothing outside of normal cycles.

"For example, if this contribution were to grow linearly with global average temperature change, the upper ranges of sea level rise for SRES scenarios shown in Table SPM-3 would increase by 0.1 m to 0.2 m."

That's a big "if" for continued rising temperatures since the tempeature pattern in the USA (best temperature data on the planet) shows a clear cycle and a current temperature trend downward. Also, the 7 hottest years out of 11 all occurred before 1955.

[BlazingArizona]

So why would the warming on the Greenland ice sheet be about three times the worldwide warming?

[Badeye]

I know. I was being sarcastic.

[milwguy]

and the increase in the Antarctic ice sheet is MORE than offsetting the loss in Greenland. Also interesting how the envirowackos who post this stuff are already proclaiming 2007 as one of the hottest years ever. Here in Wisconsin we are suffering a much COLDER than normal December and my favorite Artic ‘hotspot; Iqaluit, Canada is a balmy -18f right now. Also, the ‘record’ loss of sea ice from this summer has been replaced with a ‘record’ freeze of sea ice, earlier than normal. It appears Mother Earth is compensating for the evil CO2 belching humans who inhait her.

[stan_sipple]

The report starts reading ice from 1979! Just about the time the enviro-freaks were screaming about the new ice age and nuclear winter. Again mankind gets the blame

[SpringheelJack]

I am excited about this ice melt. We know Greenland used to be ice free and have vineyards. There is a chance some very good (and old) wine will be uncovered.

Greenland has never been ice-free during the period of human habitation. In fact, its ice sheet is tens of thousands of years old.

[BlazingArizona]

That’s an endangered left whale, isn ‘t it?

[xcamel]

FReepmail me to get on or off
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH

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[BigBobber]

Cogitator,

I know you concern about global warming is sincere and I appreciate the articles you post.

I want to make up my own mind about these issues so I looked at the researcher’s (Steffen) website for more information. He has lots of data on Greenland ice melt but nothing on the total ice volume. Surely he is collecting this information for all of Greenland —the posted article even mentions ice thickening in central Greenland. Why does he never give the total mass balance? Is it increasing or decreasing? Is he afraid his funding will go away if he states the facts? Or his he just dishonest?

The whole global warming movement has a stench to it because its proponents don’t want to deal with the whole truth. Articles like this make me more skeptical, not less.

[Old Professer]

One snippet from this link:

“During recent years (1993–2003), for which the observing
system is much better, thermal expansion and melting of land
ice each account for about half of the observed sea level rise,
although there is some uncertainty in the estimates.
The reasonable agreement in recent years between the observed
rate of sea level rise and the sum of thermal expansion and loss of
land ice suggests an upper limit for the magnitude of change in
land-based water storage, which is relatively poorly known.”

[darkwing104]

The article doesn't mention the Magma hotspots developing umder Greenland...

[dalereed]

The first day of a statistics course I had the professor stated that this course is how to lie with figures and how to make figures lie. If you really want to lie, use a graph.

His next statement was: Anyone saying or writing the word statistics in this class will automatically fail.