OMG- Ocean’s Melting Greenland | 02 Sep 2019

• Over a five-year campaign, OMG will observe changing water temperatures on the continental shelf surrounding Greenland.
• It will study how marine glaciers react to the presence of warm & salty Atlantic Water.
• OMG will pave the way for improved estimates of sea-level rise by addressing the question of to what extent are the oceans melting Greenland’s ice from below.

• The diagram above represents a typical glacier in Greenland.
  
  • Below the cold-fresh layer near the surface, a layer of warm & salty water reaches into the fjords (a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley) to melt the glacier's edge.
  • OMG will measure the volume and extent of this warm layer each year and relate it to thinning and retreat of the glaciers.
• OMG will use NASA’s G-III to fly the Glacier and Ice Surface Topography Interferometer (GLISTIN-A).
  
  • GLISTIN-A is a Ka-band single-pass interferometer. It generates high resolution, high precision elevation measurements which can be used for the study of Greenland’s coastal glaciers.

Source: HT