Photos: In Greenland, a glacier’s collapse shows climate change impact | Hindustan Times
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Photos: In Greenland, a glacier’s collapse shows climate change impact

Updated On Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

Rising seas threaten low-lying cities worldwide. But projections for how high and how soon the rise will come vary wildly in part because scientists lack clarity on how fast warming oceans are melting polar ice sheets. The uncertainty confounds mitigating preparations and fuels the arguments of climate-change skeptics. To find out, Reuters photographer Lucas Jackson joined a team of scientists flying out of Iceland, affiliated with a NASA project named Oceans Melting Greenland. In Greenland, the team witnessed a four-mile wide chunk of the Helheim glacier tumble into the sea in a process called calving - a sobering sight that put numbers into perspective.

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An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq, Greenland. Perched on a cliff above Greenland’s Helheim glacier, Reuters photographer Lucas Jackson tried calling his wife in New York on a satellite phone. Before he could leave a message, an explosion broke the arctic silence. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq, Greenland. Perched on a cliff above Greenland’s Helheim glacier, Reuters photographer Lucas Jackson tried calling his wife in New York on a satellite phone. Before he could leave a message, an explosion broke the arctic silence. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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Meltwater pools are seen on top of the Helheim glacier near Tasiilaq. More explosions followed. The popping sounds morphed into a low rumble. Over the next half hour, the ice broke apart and a four-mile wide chunk tumbled into the sea in a process called calving - one rarely witnessed on this scale. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

Meltwater pools are seen on top of the Helheim glacier near Tasiilaq. More explosions followed. The popping sounds morphed into a low rumble. Over the next half hour, the ice broke apart and a four-mile wide chunk tumbled into the sea in a process called calving - one rarely witnessed on this scale. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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Airplane Mechanic, David Fuller (L), works with a local worker to move a NASA Gulfstream III before a flight to support a research mission. It was a poignant end to a months-long project examining climate change in Greenland. Scientists have had the computational power to understand global warming for only a few decades, and the numbers are sobering. But where does the data come from? (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

Airplane Mechanic, David Fuller (L), works with a local worker to move a NASA Gulfstream III before a flight to support a research mission. It was a poignant end to a months-long project examining climate change in Greenland. Scientists have had the computational power to understand global warming for only a few decades, and the numbers are sobering. But where does the data come from? (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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Flying over eastern Greenland, the NASA scientists stared down from the jet as it followed the precise course they had flown in previous years - using radar to map the loss of ice. The mission was part of NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) project, a five-year effort aimed at improving sea level rise projections by understanding how warming oceans are melting ice sheets from below. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

Flying over eastern Greenland, the NASA scientists stared down from the jet as it followed the precise course they had flown in previous years - using radar to map the loss of ice. The mission was part of NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) project, a five-year effort aimed at improving sea level rise projections by understanding how warming oceans are melting ice sheets from below. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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A glacial terminus above the east coast of Greenland as the team locked into their route over the ice sheet covering 80% of the world’s largest island. Out the window, massive chunks of broken ice looked like salt flakes on the water. Jackson realized the scale of this work as they looked out at the seemingly infinite white horizon of the Greenland ice cap. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

A glacial terminus above the east coast of Greenland as the team locked into their route over the ice sheet covering 80% of the world’s largest island. Out the window, massive chunks of broken ice looked like salt flakes on the water. Jackson realized the scale of this work as they looked out at the seemingly infinite white horizon of the Greenland ice cap. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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Jackson joined the team for a week in March in Keflavik, Iceland. Each day they took off from icy runways and flew over Greenland’s coast, as scientists Tim Miller, Ron Muellerschoen (pictured), and David Austerberry collected a seemingly endless stream of numbers, symbols, and letters on their computers from radar data on glacier formations. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

Jackson joined the team for a week in March in Keflavik, Iceland. Each day they took off from icy runways and flew over Greenland’s coast, as scientists Tim Miller, Ron Muellerschoen (pictured), and David Austerberry collected a seemingly endless stream of numbers, symbols, and letters on their computers from radar data on glacier formations. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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NYU oceanographer David Holland repairs a broken GPS module at his research camp above the Helheim glacier. Holland gathered data on seismic activity, temperature and wind, along with and time-lapse pictures. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

NYU oceanographer David Holland repairs a broken GPS module at his research camp above the Helheim glacier. Holland gathered data on seismic activity, temperature and wind, along with and time-lapse pictures. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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Tabular icebergs float in the Sermilik Fjord after a large calving event at the Helheim glacier. Melting ice in Greenland currently adds 0.8 millimeters of water to global ocean levels annually, more than any other region, according to NASA. That’s enough water to fill 115 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

Tabular icebergs float in the Sermilik Fjord after a large calving event at the Helheim glacier. Melting ice in Greenland currently adds 0.8 millimeters of water to global ocean levels annually, more than any other region, according to NASA. That’s enough water to fill 115 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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David Holland works with student Febin Magar to inspect a seismograph in their science camp. The OMG project aims to clarify how Greenland itself contributes to rising seas, but also to apply that knowledge to the study of the much larger region of Antarctica, which has far more ice and could ultimately play a much bigger role in sea-level rise. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

David Holland works with student Febin Magar to inspect a seismograph in their science camp. The OMG project aims to clarify how Greenland itself contributes to rising seas, but also to apply that knowledge to the study of the much larger region of Antarctica, which has far more ice and could ultimately play a much bigger role in sea-level rise. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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Rising seas threaten low-lying cities, islands and industries worldwide. But projections for how high and how soon the rise will come vary wildly in part because scientists lack clarity on how fast warming oceans are melting polar ice. The uncertainty confounds the preparations of governments and businesses and fuels the arguments of climate-change skeptics. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

Rising seas threaten low-lying cities, islands and industries worldwide. But projections for how high and how soon the rise will come vary wildly in part because scientists lack clarity on how fast warming oceans are melting polar ice. The uncertainty confounds the preparations of governments and businesses and fuels the arguments of climate-change skeptics. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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The importance of glacier change for global sea-level rise this century was not widely grasped in the scientific community until recently. A draft report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for example, predicts that seas are likely to rise, and possibly irreversibly, between 33 cm and 1.33 mtr by 2100 - a wider range than the 28-to-98 cm estimate in the last IPCC assessment from 2013. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

The importance of glacier change for global sea-level rise this century was not widely grasped in the scientific community until recently. A draft report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for example, predicts that seas are likely to rise, and possibly irreversibly, between 33 cm and 1.33 mtr by 2100 - a wider range than the 28-to-98 cm estimate in the last IPCC assessment from 2013. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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Tabular icebergs float in the Sermilik Fjord. For both journalists and scientists, climate change is difficult to document. It most often happens imperceptibly - a tenth of a degree increase in temperature, a few less inches of rain, a slowly melting ice sheet. That’s why Jackson said it was so overwhelming to watch billions of tons of ice collapse at all once. Suddenly it didn’t feel like a small or distant problem. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS) expand-icon View Photos in a new improved layout
Updated on Sep 21, 2018 09:33 AM IST

Tabular icebergs float in the Sermilik Fjord. For both journalists and scientists, climate change is difficult to document. It most often happens imperceptibly - a tenth of a degree increase in temperature, a few less inches of rain, a slowly melting ice sheet. That’s why Jackson said it was so overwhelming to watch billions of tons of ice collapse at all once. Suddenly it didn’t feel like a small or distant problem. (Lucas Jackson / REUTERS)

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