View from the top: The polar ice caps in Greenland melting faster than you think
According to NASA, Greenland's melting glaciers currently contribute more freshwater to sea level rise than any other source does.
GREENLAND (KABC) -- On this episode of "Earth on the Edge," we're giving you a view from the top all the way from Greenland's capital of Nuuk.
Eyewitness News anchor David Ono joined NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory team on the final day of a six-year study over the polar ice caps in Greenland.
The mission is called Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) and it's helping to answer how fast sea level is going to rise in the next five to 50 years.
According to NASA, Greenland's melting glaciers currently contribute more freshwater to sea level rise than any other source does.
Scientists say the glaciers are melting six or seven times faster today than they were only 25 years ago.
OMG is the first NASA mission to focus solely on what the ocean contributes to the ice loss.
"OMG has really revolutionized our understanding of how the ice sheet is going to melt," said principal investigator Josh Willis. "Before, we thought of it as melting from above with the air warming, but now we know it's a lot more dynamic than that."
