Green Options

An international team of scientists has determined that the Atlantic Ocean rose faster in the 20th century than at any time in the last 4,000 years, but not uniformly along the coast.

One of the researchers, assistant professor Benjamin Horton in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, says: “There is universal agreement that sea level will rise as a result of global warming but by how much, when and where it will have the most effect is unclear.” He and other researchers have now started to tackle this issue.

Interestingly, the rate of sea level rise in recent years varies according to how far north or south you are on the coast.

Two low-flying unmanned aircraft are cruising over Greenland this month to closely observe the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its potential contribution to global sea level rise in the coming century. The flights will help scientists determine whether the ice sheet’s melt rate will accelerate in the future.

The drones are flying out of Ilulissat, half way up Greenland’s west coast, for three weeks through the end of this month. Scientists studying the rapidly vanishing Greenland ice sheet need to fill gaps in their data that was collected through satellite imagery.