Over a five-year campaign, OMG will observe changing water temperatures on the continental shelf surrounding Greenland.
It will study how marine glaciers react to the presence of warm & salty Atlantic Water.
OMG will pave the way for improved estimates of sea-level rise by addressing the question of to what extent are the oceans melting Greenland’s ice from below.
The diagram above represents a typical glacier in Greenland.
Below the cold-fresh layer near the surface, a layer of warm & salty water reaches into the fjords (a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley) to melt the glacier's edge.
OMG will measure the volume and extent of this warm layer each year and relate it to thinning and retreat of the glaciers.
OMG will use NASA’s G-III to fly the Glacier and Ice Surface Topography Interferometer (GLISTIN-A).
GLISTIN-A is a Ka-band single-pass interferometer. It generates high resolution, high precision elevation measurements which can be used for the study of Greenland’s coastal glaciers.
