Advances in satellite technologies have revealed that the planet’s glaciers have significantly less ice than previously thought, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience on Monday.
The revised estimate reduces global sea level rise by 3 inches if all glaciers melt, but raises concern for some communities who rely on seasonal glacier melt for increased river flow and crop irrigation. .
If glaciers have less ice than previously thought, the water may run out sooner than expected.
Although parts of the ice naturally melt throughout the year, rising temperatures due to climate change are accelerating glacial retreat. Between 2000 and 2019, these rivers of ice lost an estimated 5.4 trillion tonnes.
Some countries are already struggling with the disappearance of glaciers. Peru is investing in desalination to compensate for the low availability of fresh water, and Chile hopes to create artificial glaciers in its mountains.
However, “we have a very low understanding of how much ice is actually stored in glaciers,” said lead author Romain Millan, a glaciologist researcher at the University of Grenoble Alpes.
Previous analyses, for example, have twice counted glaciers along the fringes of Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets, overestimating the volume of ice.
The study published in Nature Geoscience assessed how fast glaciers are moving across the landscape, or their speeds. Such measurements allow scientists to more accurately measure their volumes, as the flow of meltwater indicates where the ice is thinner or thicker, but the collection of information has been limited by technology.
Source: CNN Brasil
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