65 Using Satellites to Measure Temperature Trends on the Greenland Ice Sheet

Monday, 15 August 2016
Grand Terrace (Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center)
Genevieve M. Burgess, CIMSS/Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI; and R. Knuteson and E. Borbas

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center the Greenland Ice Sheet is about 1.7 million square kilometers in size, covering most of Greenland. Both the Greenland Ice Sheet and the Antarctic ice sheet combined contain 99% of Earth's freshwater. Between 1979 and 2006 the summer melt on the Greenland ice sheet increased by 30%. The loss of the ice sheet has continued to increase in the following years.

Monitoring Greenland's surface temperature is becoming increasingly important due to the changes in atmospheric and oceanic temperatures. Both MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Land surface temperature and AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) aboard the NASA Aqua satellite have been taking infrared observations since September 2002. This paper will illustrate the temperature trends observed by NASA satellites on the Greenland Ice Sheet near Summit Camp.

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