Kristin Poinar: What's hidden under the Greenland ice sheet?
Kristin Poinar uses remote sensing and numerical models to study the interaction of meltwater with ice flow, especially on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
so I took a lot of breaks there.
hidden inside the ice sheet,
that the Greenland ice sheet is huge,
is two miles thick.
downhill towards the ocean.
remote physical environments
is like getting in on the ground floor
and satellites over the ice sheets
has done for social media.
a wealth of observations
about the ice sheets continuously.
of the size of the Greenland ice sheet
of the screen here
of the ice sheet melt
by an overall rate of mass loss
a glaciologist 50 years ago.
lose mass into the ocean this quickly.
on our smallest continent,
valleys, mountains and depressions
the size of the Grand Canyon
off of Greenland and into the ocean.
can reveal the bedrock
transparent to radar.
an ice cube in the microwave.
without interacting.
you have to get it wet,
in the microwave.
the microwave oven is designed around.
a vast pool of liquid water
back to the ice sheet's surface.
this glacier aquifer existed.
from the cold and the wind above.
hidden in the ice sheet
to reach the global ocean?
for the water to reach the bedrock
forces them deeper and deeper.
from deep within the earth.
in the Greenland ice sheet
most of the Greenland ice sheet
flies towards the coast,
on its quest to flow downhill,
do they take that water?
beyond remote sensing data.
that run on supercomputers.
is simply a set of equations
as the next number in a sequence --
set of equations
the equations for how ice cracks?
a very good understanding
fracture under stress.
that the engineering equations
from my physics homework.
for how a crevasse can fracture
real processes in our world.
the results of my numeric model,
a thousand times narrower than it is deep,
panel on the right
for how tall and skinny the crevasse is.
flows into the crevasse,
in the negative 15 degree Celsius ice.
as your kitchen freezer.
the glacier aquifer is high enough.
all the way to the base of the ice sheet
to reach the ocean.
per year of sea level rise
might be punching above its weight.
at the base of the ice sheet here.
present at the base there.
is getting to the base of the ice sheet,
flow faster into the ocean?
hidden inside the Greenland ice sheet
for the sea level rise it holds.
that Greenland has lost since 2002
of what that ice sheet holds.
that operate on long timescales.
will rise at least 20 centimeters,
of future sea level rise is good,
and scientists
plan for the sea level rise that's coming.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Kristin Poinar - GlaciologistKristin Poinar uses remote sensing and numerical models to study the interaction of meltwater with ice flow, especially on the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Why you should listen
Hidden under many meters of ice, a pool of meltwater lies under the Greenland Ice Sheet. Kristin Poinar studies how the meltwater forms and flows in this dynamic glacial system. She asks: How did this water get there, and where does it go? How much water is in there? And how is climate change affecting this system?
Using data from Operation IceBridge flights and from field instruments, she's building a numerical model of how crevasses form and channel water. In fact, a NASA report released in February 2017 revealed a new pathway her team discovered for meltwater to reach the ocean. Using physically based models to constrain the bounds of what is realistic has shaped Poinar's interest in glaciology.
Poinar is currently a postdoctoral researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She will be moving to the University at Buffalo in winter 2017 to be a professor in the Geology Department and the RENEW Institute.
Kristin Poinar | Speaker | TED.com