NASA photo shows more evidence of impending climate doom

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Seattlepi.com - For its image of the day today, NASA selected a photo shot from aboard the International Space Station of theUpsala Glacier on the Argentine side of the North Patagonian Icefield.
 
And, when compared with images of where the glacier was rougly 11 years ago, the outlook is pretty grim. You can see the images above.
 
The agency states: “Remotely sensed data, including astronaut images, have recorded the position of the ice front over the years. A comparison of this October 2013 image with older data … indicates that the ice front has moved backwards -- upstream -- about 2 miles. (Again, you can see key comparisons by year images in the gallery above.)
This retreat is believed by scientists to indicate climate warming in this part of South America. The warming not only causes the ice mass to retreat, but also to thin. A study of 63 glaciers by Eric Rignot et al has shown that this is a general trend in Patagonia. An image of the glaciers from this study is also in the gallery above.
Rignot’s 2003 study - Contribution of the Patagonia Icefields of South America to Sea Level Rise– does more than just point our collective fingers at global warming as the cause of dramatic glacier deterioration.
The study does say increasing global temperatures are the root cause of the loss, but:
The glaciers are thinning more quickly than can be explained by warmer air temperatures and decreased precipitation, and their contribution to sea level per unit area is larger than that of Alaska glaciers.
So, what else is causing the deterioration? “Ice dynamics”
A substantial part of the thinning must be due to ice dynamics, which means excess creep (ice thinning from longitudinal stretching) and accelerated calving (ice loss to the ocean or lakes). Climate warming enhances meltwater production, which in turn increases basal lubrication and allows faster flow rates …
It’s this fairly recent understanding of the role “ice dynamics” are playing in glacier loss that has scientists suspecting a more rapid loss of this ice than can be explained by Earth’s rising temperatures alone. All of which is just plain ol’ bad news. Read more..