The reaction of the world’s large ice sheets to global cli-mate change is still in the focus of scientific debate. Recent investigations have shown pronounced thinning in the southern part of the Greenland ice sheet (Inland Ice). In order to investigate the cause of the observed thinning and to judg...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.605.9817 http://www.geus.dk/publications/review-greenland-01/gsb191p150-156.pdf |
| Summary: | The reaction of the world’s large ice sheets to global cli-mate change is still in the focus of scientific debate. Recent investigations have shown pronounced thinning in the southern part of the Greenland ice sheet (Inland Ice). In order to investigate the cause of the observed thinning and to judge the sensitivity of this part of the ice sheet a combined field work, remote sensing and modelling pro-ject was designed. A glaciological transect was estab-lished in May 2001 on one of the main outlet glaciers in South Greenland (Fig. 1), and the first data are now avail-able. In addition, the history of the glacier variations dur-ing the last 40 years has been reconstructed. The Inland Ice in relation to sea-level and climate change During the past few decades increasing scientific evi-dence has indicated that global climate is changing pro-foundly over a wide variety of timescales, including the possibility of fast (less than centuries) temperature fluctuations of several degrees (Johnsen et al. 1998; Flückiger et al. 1999). Accumulated evidence shows that since the onset of the industrial revolution in the middle of the 19th century human activities have sig-nificantly influenced the world’s climate system (Houghton et al. 1996). Over roughly the same period an increase in annual mean temperatures in the north-ern hemisphere of about half a degree has been observed (Mann et al. 1998), which may or may not be attributed to human activities. The relationship between human impact and natural climate variations still remains unclear, and a better understanding of the complex cli-mate interactions is thus highly desirable. One of the key factors in understanding the climatic system is the interaction of the cryosphere with other components of global climate. Especially important are the high reflectivity of snow and ice for solar radiation |
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