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Emerging Research Fronts Comments
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ESI Special Topics, August 2002
Citing URL: http://www.esi-topics.com/erf/comments/august02-WilliamKrabill.html

From •>>August 2002

William B. Krabill answers a few questions about this month's Emerging Research Front in field of Geosciences:

Title: "Rapid thinning of parts of the southern Greenland ice sheet"
Author: Krabill, W;Frederick, E;Manizade, S;Martin, C;Sonntag, J;Swift, R;Thomas, R;Wright, W;Yungel, J
Journal: SCIENCE, 283: (5407) 1522-1524 MAR 5 1999
Address: NASA, Lab Hydrospher Proc, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Wallops Flight Facil, Bldg N-159, Wallops Island, VA 23337 USA.
NASA, Lab Hydrospher Proc, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Wallops Flight Facil, Wallops Island, VA 23337 USA.
EG&G Serv, Wallops Flight Facil, Wallops Island, VA 23337 USA.


ST:  Why do you think your paper is highly cited?

Our data set is firm, accurate evidence of significant thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet, albeit over a short time span.

ST:  Does it describe a new discovery or new methodology that's useful to others?

The new discovery is as discussed above. The [relatively] new methodology is the application of airborne laser/GPS to monitoring ice sheet mass balance, and is very applicable to other topographic mapping projects, such as shoreline erosion monitoring.

ST:  Could you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?

This project has demonstrated that airborne laser/GPS topographic mapping can be accomplished at the 10-cm level over baselines of 1000 km in Polar regions. The data set collected by this technology provides evidence of significant short-term thinning of most of the margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Click to see a photo of Krabill taken near Kangerlussauq, Greenland during their 2001 field trip. The margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet is in the background.

ST:  How did you become involved in this research?

I was working on developing the combined technology of laser ranging and precision Global Positioning System applications in the mid-80's when Global Warming started to become a "hot topic". Monitoring the mass balance of the great ice sheets was a logical application of that technology.End

William B. Krabill
Project Scientist for Arctic Ice Mapping (AIM)
Observational Science Branch, Code 972
Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes
NASA/GSFC/Wallops Flight Facility, Building N-159, Room E201
Wallops Island, Virginia 23337 USA

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ESI Special Topics, August 2002
Citing URL: http://www.esi-topics.com/erf/comments/august02-WilliamKrabill.html
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