Cryospheric and Polar Processes Seminar: Lora Koenig

Scratching the Surface: Studies of accumulation and melt over the ice sheets

by Dr. Lora Koenig - NSIDC/CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder

Climate change and rising sea levels present economic, engineering, and societal challenges for current and future generations. Two-thirds of the world’s cities have vulnerable populations of five million or more living in at-risk areas, less than 10 meters above sea level. Warming temperatures, amplified in the Arctic, are impacting both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. In the past two decades, melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet has accelerated, and the total mass loss has quadrupled. NASA’s Operation IceBridge has been closely monitoring both ice sheets since 2009 leading to new discoveries about both accumulation and meltwater. This presentation will explore the measurements used to monitor the ice sheets from space, air and land and describe where the uncertainties lie in future projections from the ice sheets including variations in accumulation and large storages of water, in aquifers, hiding beneath the surface of the Greenland ice sheet.