Rignot Research Group

Climate scientists from across the nation are gathering at UC Irvine this week to plan the next phase of an ambitious campaign: using planes to map the planet’s dwindling polar ice.

The prognosis is bad. Sea levels already are rising in part because of ice loss; the losses at both poles appear to be accelerating; and projections strongly suggest that it’s only going to get worse.

See the full news story at http://www.ess.uci.edu/news/brennan201106.

The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass at an accelerating pace, according to a new NASA-funded satellite study. The findings of the study -- the longest to date of changes in polar ice sheet mass -- suggest these ice sheets are overtaking ice loss from Earth's mountain glaciers and ice caps to become the dominant contributor to global sea level rise, much sooner than model forecasts have predicted.

See the full story at http://www.ess.uci.edu/news/searise201103

Professor Eric Rignot describes the science objectives of NASA's IceBridge Mission

UCI/NASA study finds submarine erosion plays major, previously overlooked, role.

Glaciers in West Greenland are melting 100 times more rapidly at their end points beneath the ocean than they are at their surfaces, according to a UC Irvine/NASA study published online this week in Nature Geoscience.

See full story at http://www.ess.uci.edu/news/20100217rignot

Scientist Eric Rignot to speak on how warmer climate and water are changing topography in Antarctica and Greenland.

Global climate change - especially as it relates to glacial melting and rising ocean levels - is the subject of much debate and research.

Eric Rignot, Earth system science professor, studies ice sheet melting in Antarctica and Greenland. He will talk about his work 8-9 a.m. Tuesday, March 31, as part of the 2008-09 Discover the Physical Sciences Breakfast Lecture Series.