Press Coverage
News stories about my work, media interviews and comments.
Video & Podcast interviews
Humanitarian AI: Ritwick Gupta and Fernando Paolo discuss AI + HADR and xView3
Once a Scientist: JPL geophysicist, Fernando Paolo, on breaking stereotypes and the influence of strong women in his life
Carbon Brief: El Niño and the Antarctic ice shelves
Newsy Science: Antarctic Ice Is Melting Faster Than Ever
Scripps Oceanography: El Nino Impacts on Ice Shelves
Scripps Oceanography: Understanding and Protecting the Planet
Media coverage on papers
Eos: Shrinking Ice Sheets Lifted Global Sea Level 14 Millimeters
“With the unprecedented accuracy and precision of this novel measurement system, we are now able to detect the small signals far into the ice sheet interior, as well as map out the changes over narrow glaciers on high-slope terrain around the ice sheets,” said study coauthor Fernando S. Paolo of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Previous altimeters struggled with these challenges. Because we used laser measurements over a fairly long time span (about 16 years), we are getting the overall trends of ice sheet mass loss with higher confidence.”
New York Times: A Satellite Lets Scientists See Antarctica’s Melting Like Never Before
NASA: NASA Space Laser Missions Map 16 Years of Ice Sheet Loss
BBC: Nasa space lasers track melting of Earth's ice sheets
CNN: Ocean warming is causing massive ice sheet loss in Greenland and Antarctica, NASA study shows
CNBC: A new way of measuring ice melt in Antarctica, Greenland sounds alarm about global sea level rise
ScienceNews: Greenland and Antarctica are gaining ice inland, but still losing it overall
NPR: Antarctica And Greenland Are Losing Thousands Of Gigatons of Ice - That's A Lot
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IPCC Report: Cited multiple times on Chapters 3 and 4 in the United Nations's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
There is high confidence that the input of ice shelf meltwater has increased in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas since the 1990s, but low confidence in trends in other sectors (Paolo et al., 2015).
Reduction or loss of ice shelf buttressing has dominated Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamic thinning (high confidence) ... ice shelf thinning increased in WAIS by 70% in the decade to 2012, averaged 8% thickness loss from 1994 to 2012 in the Amundsen Sea Embayment (Paolo et al., 2015).
Recent ENSO variability is correlated with recent changes in ice shelf thickness (Paolo et al., 2018).
They lose mass through a combination of calving and by melting from below, especially where basal ice is in contact with warm water (Paolo et al., 2015; others)
It has become increasingly evident that this ice loss is being driven by sub-ice oceanic melt (thinning) of ice shelves (Paolo et al., 2015; others)
IPCC Chapter 3: Polar Regions
IPCC Chapter 4: Sea Level Rise
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BBC: Climate change: Study underpins key idea in Antarctic ice loss
Northumbria University: The impact of Antarctica's thinning ice shelves
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BBC: El Nino's long reach to Antarctic ice
"That means for a short period of time you are adding the two together [gains from snowfall and loses from melting]. And that's key information to put into computer models if you want to properly represent the dynamics of these systems," explained Dr Paolo, who has now moved to the US space agency.
Scripps Oceanography: New Study Reveals Strong El Niño Events Cause Large Changes in Antarctic Ice Shelves
Carbon Brief: El Niño causes West Antarctica’s ice shelves to gain height yet lose mass
Newsweek: Antarctica is melting from below - and it's getting worse
Earther: Future El Niños Could Spell Trouble For the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
E&E News: More snow makes icy pole look bigger. But it's shrinking
EurekAlert: New study reveals strong El Niño events cause large changes in Antarctic ice shelves
Phys.org: New study reveals strong El Nino events cause large changes in Antarctic ice shelves
EuropaPress: Fuertes eventos de El Niño alteran plataformas de hielo en la Antártida
Environmental Research Web: New study reveals strong El Niño events cause large changes in Antarctic ice shelves
International Business Times: Antarctic Ice Shelves Affected Greatly By Strong El Niño, Study Finds
FAPESP Research Magazine: El Niño e o derretimento silencioso da Antártida (El Niño and the silent melting of Antarctica)
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Washington Post: This ice shelf is nearly the size of Scotland - and it could be at 'imminent risk'
The Guardian: Thinning Antarctic ice shelf could contribute to sea level rise, says study
British Antarctic Survey: New study shows Antarctic ice shelf is thinning from above and below
Climate Central: The ABCs of Antarctic Ice Shelf Melting
YAHOO News: Breakup fears for massive Antarctic ice shelf: study
Carbon Brief: Antarctic Larsen-C ice shelf at risk of collapse, study warns
EuroNews: Melting of Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctic may raise sea levels
LiveScience: Antarctica's Ice Attacked from Above and Below
CBS News: Antarctica is melting from above and below
Motherboard: A Massive Antarctic Ice Shelf Is Thinning From Two Sides and Now We Know Why
International Business Times: Antarctica: Largest ice shelf melting fast from above and below
BBC: Antarctic ice thinning from above and below
Mashable: Scientists find large Antarctic ice shelves closer to collapse than they thought
Scientific American: Massive Antarctic Ice Shelf Faces Imminent Risk of Collapse
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Los Angeles Times: Antarctic ice shelves melting 70% faster, study shows
An acceleration in the flow of massive ice sheets would add substantially to the ongoing rise of sea levels, according to Fernando Paolo, a geophysics PhD candidate at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and lead author of the study published online Thursday in the journal Science.
Science/AAAS: Antarctica is rapidly losing its edge
Wall Street Journal: Antarctic Ice Shelves Are Shrinking, Study Says
BBC: Antarctic ice shelf thinning speeds up
Reuters: Study shows acceleration in decline of Antarctic ice shelves
Climate Central: Antarctica's Icy 'Doorstops' Thin; Rising Seas At Risk
Washington Post: Antarctica's floating ice shelves, the doorstop of the continent, are melting away
The Guardian: Antarctic ice shelves are melting dramatically, study finds
Scripps Oceanography: Antarctic Ice Shelves Rapidly Thinning
Carbon Brief: Antarctic ice shelf thinning is accelerating, reveals new study
New Scientist: Major Antarctic ice survey reveals dramatic melting
Inside Climate News: Antarctica's Melting Edges Bad News for Sea Level Rise
The Verge: Antarctica's ice melt has been accelerating in the last two decades
Scientific American: Antarctica's Ice Shelves Thin, Threaten Significant Sea Level Rise
NPR: Big Shelves Of Antarctic Ice Melting Faster Than Scientists Thought
KQED: Big Shelves Of Antarctic Ice Melting Faster Than Scientists Thought
Mashable: West Antarctic ice losses have surged by 70% in the last decade
Christian Science Monitor: Antarctic ice shelf melt accelerating, study finds
Live Science: Antarctica's Ice Shelves Are Thinning Fast
Grist: Antarctica is basically liquefying
Weather Channel: Antarctic Ice Thinning Faster Than We Thought, New Research Shows
YAHOO News: Antarctic ice shelf loss 'quicker'
Radio NZ: Tim Naish: Antarctic ice shelves
Accu Weather: Antarctica's Ice Shelves Experiencing Accelerated Losses
TIME: The Antarctic's Floating Ice Shelves Are Melting At an Alarming Rate
Science Times: Antarctica's Ice Shelves Melting Faster Than Originally Thought
NBC: Antarctica Ice Shelves Melting at Faster Pace: Study
ST Gist: Antarctica Responding To Climate Change, New Study Revealed
Pioneer News: Antarctica ice shelves thinning rapidly due to record warmth
R&D World: Antarctic ice shelves rapidly thinning
Nature World News: Antarctic Ice Shelves Are Melting Faster Than Ever Before... Again
Climate News Network: Shrinking of ice shelves raises sea level concerns
International Business Times: Some of Antarctica's thinning floating ice shelves 'will be gone in 100 years'
E&E News: Scientists report rapid Antarctic melting, predict ice shelves could be gone 'within 100 years'
Science News: Antarctic ice shelves rapidly melting
La Presse: Antarctica: the thickness of the surrounding ice significantly reduced
Nature: Ice shelves shrink fast in Antarctica
CBS News: Antarctic ice shelf thinning "rapidly" in last decade
VICE: It Was Warmer in Antarctica Than in New York City Last Week - and That's Not Even the Bad News
Liberation: Climate: The Earth loses its freezer
San Diego Supercomputer Center SDSC Supercomputers Assist in Scripps' Thinning Antarctic Ice Study
FAPESP Research Magazine: Thinner and brittle
General audience articles
The Conversation: Short-term changes in Antarctica’s ice shelves are key to predicting their long-term fate
The Conversation: Shrinking of Antarctic ice shelves is accelerating
Veja Magazine: Why we need to talk about the gian Antarctic iceberg? (Portuguese)
Science Today: Antarctica: What could happen if the ice melts? (Portuguese)
External comments
RealClimate: Background on the role of natural climate variability in West Antarctic ice sheet change
Finally, Paolo et al. (2018) showed that the influence of El Niño events on West Antarctic glaciers could be measured by satellite observations: El Niño events tend to be correlated with both increased melting from below, and increased snowfall above, and the variations in the altitude of the ice sheet surface (varying by a few tens of cm) can be detected by satellite altimetry.
Eos: Warm Water Is Rapidly Eroding Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf
“Field observations of this kind are scarce and extremely valuable,” said Fernando Paolo, a polar scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., not involved in the research. “The study reaffirms the importance of looking at polynyas to better understand mass exchanges between the ice shelves and the ocean.”
"We have known from observations that the ice sheets and mountain glaciers have been losing mass at an accelerated rate over the past decade or so," Fernando Paolo, postdoctoral scholar at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who was not involved with the study, told Newsweek. This study shows "a clear acceleration in the 25-year sea level rise, which can be linked to the accelerated ice loss."
ScienceNews: Wind may be driving the melting of East Antarctica’s largest glacier
“We have little data on the ocean and ice shelf conditions in this region,” says Fernando Paolo, a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. But the 14-year record used in the study is still somewhat short to infer a definitive link between wind-driven upwelling and ice shelf melt, he says. Still, he adds, these new data are a welcome addition to the pool of sparse observations, supporting the idea that Totten Glacier is very sensitive to changing oceanic conditions, much like the fast-thinning glaciers in West Antarctica.