Oceans Melting Greenland: Early Results from NASA's Ocean-Ice Mission in Greenland

• Published in: Oceanography
• Main Authors: Fenty, Ian, Willis, Josh K., Khazendar, Ala, Dinardo, Steven, Forsberg, René, Fukumori, Ichiro, Holland, David, Jakobsson, Martin, Moller, Delwyn, Morison, James, Münchow, Andreas, Rignot, Eric, Schodlok, Michael, Thompson, Andrew F., Tinto, Kirsteen, Rutherford, Matthew, Trenholm, Nicole
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oceanography Society 2016
• Subjects: Greenland; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2016.100

Melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet represents a major uncertainty in projecting future rates of global sea level rise. Much of this uncertainty is related to a lack of knowledge about subsurface ocean hydrographic properties, particularly heat content, how these properties are modified across the continental shelf, and about the extent to which the ocean interacts with glaciers. Early results from NASA's five-year Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) mission, based on extensive hydrographic and bathymetric surveys, suggest that many glaciers terminate in deep water and are hence vulnerable to increased melting due to ocean-ice interaction. OMG will track ocean conditions and ice loss at glaciers around Greenland through the year 2020, providing critical information about ocean-driven Greenland ice mass loss in a warming climate. © 2016 The Oceanography Society. The research described in this paper was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. ©2015 California Institute of Technology. US Government sponsorship is acknowledged. Published - 29-4_fenty.pdf