The Arctic is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to global warming. According to data the from Norwegian Meteorological Office, the region is warming 5-7x as quickly as the rest of the planet. The dramatic effects of this warming can be seen on Svalbard - an archipelago high inside the Arctic circle. Background warming, combined with an additional 5°C temperature anomaly this summer, has led to record ice loss from the islands. And this melting land ice will lead to higher sea levels.
While melting ice from Svalbard won’t have a significant effect on sea levels on its own, it raises concerns for larger land masses such as Greenland. A total melt of Greenland’s ice sheet would increase sea levels by a whopping 7.4 metres - displacing hundreds of millions of people and drowning entire island states.
The warning signs are clear. We all need to be reducing our own emissions (and demanding governments and corporations to do the same).
#icemelt#ice#climatechange#snow#globalwarming#winter#glacier#svalbard#norway#greenland#water#icesheet#noplanetb#climateemergency#arctic#icemelting#sealevelrise#arcticocean#noplanetb#icebergs#glacier#sealevel#globalheating#globalwarming#UtuClimateAction
Seas are rising, and the pace is quickening. 🌊
Sea levels around the globe have risen 10.1 centimeters (about 3.98 inches) on average, according to 30 years of satellite data. That's like covering the contiguous U.S. in about 16 feet (about 5 meters) of water. Recent rates have been unprecedented over the past 2,500-plus years.
📈 This line graph shows an overall rise in sea levels. Highs and lows each year are caused by the exchange of water – like through rain and snow – between land and sea.
🌎 The globe shows how the rate of sea level rise varies in different areas, with some parts of the ocean rising faster (shown in red and orange) than the global rate. Many of the anomalies (changes from an average) reflect long-term shifts in ocean currents and heat distribution, such as El Niño and La Niña events.
@NASA and its partner agencies have been monitoring sea levels from space for 30 years, starting with the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite that launched in 1992. Since then, five satellite missions with similar instruments have continued measuring sea level from orbit. Together, these missions provide a standardized record of ocean surface heights that is sensitive enough to detect global and regional sea level changes. 🛰
Video and image credit: NASA's Earth Observatory
Repost from @nasaearth and @nasaocean#SeaLevelRise#Ocean#EarthFromSpace#RemoteSensing
VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
The video shows an animated line graph of sea level change as seen from space. The line shows fluctuations, but overall about 10 centimeters of rise since 1992. Behind the graph, a rotating globe shows where sea levels are rising.
With its 900 km of shoreline, #NewYork city (like many other cities that border an ocean) is at risk of flooding due to rising sea levels.
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Data show that since 1993, the global mean sea level has risen, on average, just over 3 mm every year. 📸 @CopernicusEU#Sentinel2.The upcoming @copernicus_eu Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite, set to launch in November from California, US, is the first of two identical satellites that will provide observations of sea level change. Each Sentinel-6 satellite carries an altimeter that works by measuring the time it takes for radar pulses to travel to Earth’s surface and back again to the satellite. Combined with precise satellite location data, altimetry measurements yield the height of the sea surface.
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Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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#NewYork#US#Bronx#Brooklyn#Manhattan#Queens#StatenIsland#sentinel6#esa#copernicus#nasa#eumetsat#spacex#nasaearth#satellite#launch#liftoff#noaa#earthobservation#esareels#sealevelrise#climatechange