Rignot Eric

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Rignot
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Eric
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  • Article
    BedMachine v3 : complete bed topography and ocean bathymetry mapping of Greenland from multibeam echo sounding combined with mass conservation
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2017-11-01) Morlighem, Mathieu ; Williams, Chris N. ; Rignot, Eric ; An, Lu ; Arndt, Jan Erik ; Bamber, Jonathan L. ; Catania, Ginny ; Chauché, Nolwenn ; Dowdeswell, Julian ; Dorschel, Boris ; Fenty, Ian ; Hogan, Kelly ; Howat, Ian M. ; Hubbard, Alun ; Jakobsson, Martin ; Jordan, Tom M. ; Kjeldsen, Kristian K. ; Millan, Romain ; Mayer, Larry A. ; Mouginot, Jeremie ; Noël, Brice P. Y. ; O’Cofaigh, Colm ; Palmer, Steven ; Rysgaard, Soren ; Seroussi, Helene ; Siegert, Martin J. ; Slabon, Patricia ; Straneo, Fiamma ; Van den Broeke, Michiel ; Weinrebe, W. ; Wood, Michael ; Zinglersen, Karl Brix
    Greenland's bed topography is a primary control on ice flow, grounding line migration, calving dynamics, and subglacial drainage. Moreover, fjord bathymetry regulates the penetration of warm Atlantic water (AW) that rapidly melts and undercuts Greenland's marine-terminating glaciers. Here we present a new compilation of Greenland bed topography that assimilates seafloor bathymetry and ice thickness data through a mass conservation approach. A new 150 m horizontal resolution bed topography/bathymetric map of Greenland is constructed with seamless transitions at the ice/ocean interface, yielding major improvements over previous data sets, particularly in the marine-terminating sectors of northwest and southeast Greenland. Our map reveals that the total sea level potential of the Greenland ice sheet is 7.42 ± 0.05 m, which is 7 cm greater than previous estimates. Furthermore, it explains recent calving front response of numerous outlet glaciers and reveals new pathways by which AW can access glaciers with marine-based basins, thereby highlighting sectors of Greenland that are most vulnerable to future oceanic forcing.
  • Article
    Designing the climate observing system of the future
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2018-01-23) Weatherhead, Elizabeth C. ; Wielicki, Bruce A. ; Ramaswamy, Venkatachalam ; Abbott, Mark ; Ackerman, Thomas P. ; Atlas, Robert ; Brasseur, Guy ; Bruhwiler, Lori ; Busalacchi, Antonio J. ; Butler, James H. ; Clack, Christopher T. M. ; Cooke, Roger ; Cucurull, Lidia ; Davis, Sean M. ; English, Jason M. ; Fahey, David W. ; Fine, Steven S. ; Lazo, Jeffrey K. ; Liang, Shunlin ; Loeb, Norman G. ; Rignot, Eric ; Soden, Brian ; Stanitski, Diane ; Stephens, Graeme ; Tapley, Byron D. ; Thompson, Anne M. ; Trenberth, Kevin E. ; Wuebbles, Donald
    Climate observations are needed to address a large range of important societal issues including sea level rise, droughts, floods, extreme heat events, food security, and freshwater availability in the coming decades. Past, targeted investments in specific climate questions have resulted in tremendous improvements in issues important to human health, security, and infrastructure. However, the current climate observing system was not planned in a comprehensive, focused manner required to adequately address the full range of climate needs. A potential approach to planning the observing system of the future is presented in this article. First, this article proposes that priority be given to the most critical needs as identified within the World Climate Research Program as Grand Challenges. These currently include seven important topics: melting ice and global consequences; clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity; carbon feedbacks in the climate system; understanding and predicting weather and climate extremes; water for the food baskets of the world; regional sea-level change and coastal impacts; and near-term climate prediction. For each Grand Challenge, observations are needed for long-term monitoring, process studies and forecasting capabilities. Second, objective evaluations of proposed observing systems, including satellites, ground-based and in situ observations as well as potentially new, unidentified observational approaches, can quantify the ability to address these climate priorities. And third, investments in effective climate observations will be economically important as they will offer a magnified return on investment that justifies a far greater development of observations to serve society's needs.
  • Article
    Challenges to understanding the dynamic response of Greenland's marine terminating glaciers to oceanic and atmospheric forcing
    (American Meteorological Society, 2013-08) Straneo, Fiamma ; Heimbach, Patrick ; Sergienko, Olga ; Hamilton, Gordon S. ; Catania, Ginny ; Griffies, Stephen M. ; Hallberg, Robert ; Jenkins, Adrian ; Joughin, Ian ; Motyka, Roman ; Pfeffer, W. Tad ; Price, Stephen F. ; Rignot, Eric ; Scambos, Ted ; Truffer, Martin ; Vieli, Andreas
    The recent retreat and speedup of outlet glaciers, as well as enhanced surface melting around the ice sheet margin, have increased Greenland's contribution to sea level rise to 0.6 ± 0.1 mm yr−1 and its discharge of freshwater into the North Atlantic. The widespread, near-synchronous glacier retreat, and its coincidence with a period of oceanic and atmospheric warming, suggests a common climate driver. Evidence points to the marine margins of these glaciers as the region from which changes propagated inland. Yet, the forcings and mechanisms behind these dynamic responses are poorly understood and are either missing or crudely parameterized in climate and ice sheet models. Resulting projected sea level rise contributions from Greenland by 2100 remain highly uncertain. This paper summarizes the current state of knowledge and highlights key physical aspects of Greenland's coupled ice sheet–ocean–atmosphere system. Three research thrusts are identified to yield fundamental insights into ice sheet, ocean, sea ice, and atmosphere interactions, their role in Earth's climate system, and probable trajectories of future changes: 1) focused process studies addressing critical glacier, ocean, atmosphere, and coupled dynamics; 2) sustained observations at key sites; and 3) inclusion of relevant dynamics in Earth system models. Understanding the dynamic response of Greenland's glaciers to climate forcing constitutes both a scientific and technological frontier, given the challenges of obtaining the appropriate measurements from the glaciers' marine termini and the complexity of the dynamics involved, including the coupling of the ocean, atmosphere, glacier, and sea ice systems. Interdisciplinary and international cooperation are crucial to making progress on this novel and complex problem.