Scientists sail for Greenland to study glacier melt risk
The GIANT project will gather new data to improve climate models and an early-warning system for glacier collapse, scientists said.
- On Thursday, an international team of around 80 scientists and crew depart Harwich International Port in Essex aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough to investigate whether Greenland's melting glaciers disrupt major Atlantic Ocean currents affecting Europe's climate.
- The expedition is part of the £20 million GIANT project, which examines whether Greenland's rapidly melting ice disrupts the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre; marine geophysicist Kelly Hogan warns that freshwater influx could slow heat transfer to Europe.
- A high-tech submersible nicknamed "Boaty McBoatface" will dive 1500 metres below the glacier mélange to map geometry, enabling exploration in ways that were "unimaginable just a few years ago," Hogan said.
- Following record-breaking heatwaves across Western Europe, the mission aims to improve climate models, as Hogan noted these events "driven home that it's difficult for us to adapt to even quite small changes in our climate."
- Data gathered will feed into early-warning systems for glacier collapse, which could otherwise trigger stormier UK winters; Hogan warned that within 10 years, ice melt could "change where it rains in the UK and it would be more stormy in our winters.
19 Articles
19 Articles
The Greenland ice cap, consisting of millions of cubic kilometres of fresh water, melts rapidly under the influence of global warming. Scientists believe that this could disrupt important Atlantic currents that play a major role in the regulation of global climate. But due to the dangerous conditions on site, where huge blocks of ice are unforeseeable, researchers have had difficulty studying the phenomenon closely.
Radio France Internationale
UK launches hi-tech mission to study Greenland ice melt
Greenland's ice sheet, made up of millions of cubic kilometres of freshwater, is melting rapidly due to global warming, and scientists believe it could disrupt key Atlantic currents that control the world's weather. But because of the hazardous environment, where blocks of ice "calve" or fall off unpredictably, scientists have struggled to study the melt up close. The RRS Sir David Attenborough polar research ship, named after the famed British …
International Research Team En Route to Greenland To Study Impact of Ice Melt on Atlantic
An international team of researchers has set off for Greenland on a six-week expedition to study how quickly the ice sheet’s rapidly melting fjord glaciers are pushing the Atlantic Ocean towards a critical climate tipping point. The team will travel…
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