ENHG Lecture November 3: Glacier Change in Antarctica and Greenland and Its Influence on Coastal Cities of UAE by Dr. Xianwei Wang

About the talk:

Our Earth is changing fast, and the global temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.07°C per decade since 1880. As a consequence, the ice and snow in Antarctica and Greenland are melting quickly into the ocean, raising the global sea level by 11-16cm in the twentieth century, and threatening the infrastructure safety of some coastal cities. 

This presentation will cover the warming of global land and ocean surfaces, as well as polar glacier changes. The effect of global warming on polar glaciers will be introduced, as well as glacier and ocean observation from space, and some in-situ field work we conducted in Greenland and Antarctica. The potential threat of global sea level rise on coastal cities such as Abu Dhabi will be discussed.

Biography of Xianwei Wang

Dr. Xianwei Wang is a remote sensing scientist interested in polar glacier change and global sea level rise. He obtained his PhD from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, in 2012, and works at Ohio State University (OSU) and New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). Since 2015, he has worked as a research scientist at the Center for Global Sea Level Change, NYUAD.

Dr. Wang has a wide interest in the Earth science applications of remote sensing observations, especially in research related to global environmental changes. He is very good at extracting three- dimensional changes to the Earth surface, and has published 23 peer-reviewed journal papers covering different topics related to land surface and polar glacier changes. Currently he is primarily focusing on glacier changes in Antarctica and Greenland, and the forces driving rapid change to the global climate and sea level. 

Dr. Wang has ten years of experience in polar ice change study and rich experience in polar ice expedition. He conducted field work in Antarctica with the Chinese Antarctica Expedition and the Korean Polar Research Institute one and three times, respectively. He also went to Greenland with New York University three times to observe rapid glacier retreat and ocean-ice interaction in both East and West Greenland.