NASA Study Finds Glacier Doubling Its Speed

A NASA-funded study found that Greenland's largest outlet glacier, Jakobshavn Isbrae, has doubled its speed of ice flow between 1997 and 2003. The study used data from satellites and airborne lasers to derive ice movements. Synthetic aperture radar data from the Canadian RADARSAT and ESA’s ERS satellites were used to measure the glacier's velocity. Researchers tracked distinct features in NASA Landsat satellite image pairs to determine velocities. The study provides newly discovered relationships between ice sheets, sea level rise and climate warming. Jakobshavn Isbrae drains 6.5% of Greenland's ice sheet area. The increased ice flow into the ocean is important because this one glacier has increased the rate of sea level rise by approximately 4% of the 20th century rate of increase.