EdGCM: Climate Modeling for Research and Education - Educational Perspective: Warmer climate leads to more snow in Greenland?

Educational Perspective: Warmer climate leads to more snow in Greenland?

Education - General
Written by Steven J. Richards
Sunday, 11 December 2005
Discuss this article... Science Summary > EdGCM Exercise > Educational Perspective Educational Perspectives "Warmer climate leads to more snow in Greenland" is the first in a series of climate-study investigations that will appear in our outreach arcticles section, which are designed to introduce students to the scientific process of planning experiments, running climate simulations, analyzing model output, drawing conclusions and reporting results to their peers and to the public. Prior to presenting this experiment, educators may wish to consider examining the National Science Education Standards (NSES) for content that are specifically correlated to its activities. These correlations may be found at the EdGCM web site: Content Standards A, B, D, G, for high schools Teaching Standards B, D, E for high schools Students may become interested and more motivated when they are informed that the experiment they will be performing is based upon recent scientific findings. Moreover, they will be investigating important questions regarding the future climate of Greenland with respect to snow fall, snow depth and snow cover that will result from a warming climate due to increasing CO2 in the atmosphere. A follow up study could focus on the following questions: if sea levels rise about 7 meters in the event the entire Greenland ice sheet melts, how would this impact on worldwide coastal regions? Which population centers would face the greatest danger? How might the ecology of Greenland and other regions of the world be affected? Additional Online Resources Greenland's ice loss accelerating rapidly, gravity-measuring satellites reveal (2006-10) Satellite Survey Shows Growth Of Greenland Ice Sheet Interior (2005-11) ERS altimeter survey shows growth of Greenland Ice Sheet interior (2005-11) Status of the Greenland Ice-Sheet (2005-11) Greenland Melt Extent, 2005 (2005-09) Greenland ice-melt 'speeding up (2004-07) Greenland ice cap 'doomed to meltdown (2004-04) Greenland Melt May Swamp LA, Other Cities, Study Says (2004-04) Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Mass Balance Data (2004) Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets: IPCC Climate Change 2001 Working Group I The Scientific Basis (2001) Thickness of the Greenland Ice Cap (2000) The North Atlantic Oscillation and its Imprint on Precipitation and Ice Accumulation in Greenland (1998) Twin Ice Cores From Greenland Reveal History of Climate Change, More (1996-10) What's Up In the Future with EdGCM? The study of Johannessen et al., 2005 suggests that there are correlations between Greenland's climate and the North Atlantic Oscillation and it would be possible to explore this issue using EdGCM and an observed sea surface temperature data set. We do not know if the GISS Model II GCM, which is used in EdGCM, produces the North Atlantic Oscillation feature of the climate system. This is something that could be explored in more extensive research projects. Watch this website and future versions of EdGCM for more information on exploring climate oscillations like the NAO. Discuss this article... Science Summary > EdGCM Exercise > Educational Perspective