ice sheets

UCI, JPL glaciologists unveil most precise map ever of Antarctic ice velocity

Written on July 29, 2019.

Project utilized 25 years of data from six international satellite missions Irvine, Calif., July 29, 2019 – Constructed from a quarter century’s worth of satellite data, a new map of Antarctic ice velocity by glaciologists from the University of California, Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the most precise ever created. Published today in a paper in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters, the map is 10 times more accurate than previous renditions,...

Ice loss in Antarctica is increasingly contributing to global sea level rise

Written on June 13, 2018.

UCI scientists are part of international team conducting 25-year assessment Irvine, Calif., June 13, 2018 – Loss of ice in Antarctica has caused global sea levels to rise by 7.6 millimeters since 1992, with 40 percent of the increase happening in just the past five years, according to a team of 84 scientists, including discipline-leading experts from the University of California, Irvine. Their assessment of conditions in Antarctica is based on combined data from 24 satellite surveys and...

UCI Earth system scientist joins international team studying Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica

Written on May 1, 2018.

Mathieu Morlighem, UCI assistant professor of Earth system science, is contributing his expertise in ice sheet numerical modeling to the newly launched International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. The five-year, $25 million project, co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the U.K.’s Natural Environment Research Council, aims to provide answers to some of the most pressing inquiries about ice mass loss near the South Pole and the impact it will have on global sea level rise. “Thwaites,...

NASA selects UCI’s Isabella Velicogna for interdisciplinary Sea Level Change Team

Written on November 14, 2017.

Melting polar ice is causing sea levels to rise around the world, but how much of an increase will the future bring, and where? These are the key questions to be addressed by Isabella Velicogna, UCI Earth system scientist, as a recently named member of NASA’s Sea Level Change Team. She and her research group will work to reduce the uncertainty in global and local sea-level estimates using data from a variety of sources, including the European Space Agency’s CryoSat mission and NASA’s ICESat,...

New Greenland maps show more glaciers at risk

Written on November 1, 2017.

UCI-created high-resolution charts will inform future ice and sea level forecasts Irvine, Calif., Nov. 1, 2017 – New maps of Greenland’s coastal seafloor and bedrock beneath its massive ice sheet show that two to four times as many coastal glaciers are at risk of accelerated melting as had previously been thought. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, NASA and 30 other institutions have published the most comprehensive, accurate and high-resolution relief maps ever made of...

UCI, NASA reveal new details of Greenland ice loss

Written on February 9, 2017.

Data are dramatically increasing knowledge of how the ocean is melting the ice sheet Irvine, Calif., Feb. 9, 2017 – Less than a year after the first research flight kicked off NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland campaign, data from the new program are providing a dramatic increase in knowledge of how Greenland’s ice sheet is melting from below. Two new research papers in the journal Oceanography, including one by UCI Earth system scientist Mathieu Morlighem, use OMG observations to document how...

Sudden Ice Melt Seen on 97% of Greenland

Written on July 25, 2012.

Pat Brennan, The Orange County Register Nearly the entire Greenland ice sheet experienced surface melting over just a few days in mid July, an extremely rare event that has not occurred since 1889, according to measurements reported by NASA scientists. And while the melting episode cannot be linked directly to global warming, it appears to fit into a dramatic trend: a long-term warming of the Arctic that is two to three times faster than the global average. “This is more like weather,”...

Weighing the Earth’s Fate

Written on June 18, 2012.

Kathryn Bold, ZotZine UC Irvine Online Magazine Isabella Velicogna’s office in UC Irvine’s Croul Hall looks like it belongs to an artist instead of a university scientist. Her paintings and drawings — including charming sketches of mice — adorn the walls, and colorful, handcrafted mobiles dangle from the ceiling. “In my next life, I will be a children’s book illustrator,” says Velicogna, who loves to paint, draw and sew. For now, though, she’s too...

Weighing the Earth’s fate

Written on June 1, 2012.

Kathryn Bold, University Communications Isabella Velicogna‘s office in UC Irvine’s Croul Hall looks like it belongs to an artist instead of a university scientist. Her paintings and drawings — including charming sketches of mice — adorn the walls, and colorful, handcrafted mobiles dangle from the ceiling. “In my next life, I will be a children’s book illustrator,” says Velicogna, who loves to paint, draw and sew. For now, though, she’s too busy conducting pioneering research on global warming...

Measuring melting ice sheets

Written on March 26, 2009.

Global climate change – especially as it relates to glacial melting and rising ocean levels – is the subject of much debate and research. Eric Rignot, Earth system science professor, studies ice sheet melting in Antarctica and Greenland. He will talk about his work March 31 as part of the 2008-09 Discover the Physical Sciences Breakfast Lecture Series. Jennifer Fitzenberger, University Communications Global climate change – especially as it relates to glacial melting and rising...

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