Climate change|With the help of data collected by the satellites of the Finnish company Iceye, a process was identified in which water accumulates to melt the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica from below.
Finnish With the help of satellite data from the Iceye company, new information has been obtained about the melting process of the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica.
According to the researchers, due to the new information, predictions of global sea level rise may have to be re-examined.
Yesterday tells about the observation In PNAS journal published research. The study was led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and is being reported by the university on their website.
The research was covered in news, among other things USA Today.
Satellites with the help of the data collected in March-June 2023, it was found that warm seawater accumulates under the ice attached to the bottom.
The study’s lead author Eric Rignotin seawater flows into the glacier much more than previously thought.
The identified process causes “rapid melting”, as it involves warmer water brought by ocean currents.
The intrusion of seawater into the glacier makes the glacier more sensitive to sea warming and threatens to disintegrate it more easily.
Thwaitesin previously only fragmented data was available to researchers about the melting of the glacier.
Iceye’s satellite radars provide a long-term series of daily data on glacier and sea level changes. Comparing the data to the tide cycle, it stands out that seawater travels far under the glacier and gets stuck there.
“Thanks to Iceye, we are beginning to recognize this tidal process for the first time,” says Rignot in the UCI press release.
Thwaitesin the glacier has been called the “doomsday glacier”, because its melting would mean a significant sea level rise of 60 centimeters.
With new information, predictions about sea level rise may have to be modified.
“The concern is that we underestimated [Thwaitesin] the rate of glacier change, which would be devastating for coastal settlements around the world,” states one of the authors of the study, a professor of geography and environmental management Christine Dow.
According to Rignot, it is still not possible to estimate in what time the glacier will melt completely.
“It will last several decades, not centuries,” Rignot tells USA Today.