Science & Technology
Greenland ice melt accelerating rapidly
By
T.K. RandallJuly 25, 2012 ·
70 comments
Image Credit: Jason Auch
The amount of Greenland's ice sheet that has melted this month has reached unprecedented levels.
NASA scientists have been using satellite images to monitor the situation. While about half of the ice sheet usually melts during an average summer, this year experts were shocked to discover that in less than a week the amount of the ice sheet that had melted went from just 40% to a whopping 97%. One scientist at JPL was so surprised by the results that he had to double checked with them that it wasn't simply a data error.
NASA's Cryosphere program manager Tom Wagner has been studying what these changes could mean and what brought them about. "We have abundant evidence that Greenland is losing ice, probably because of global warming, and it's significantly contributing to sea level rise," he said. On the topic of warmer ocean waters eating away at the ice he added "it seems likely that's correlated with anthropogenic warming."[!gad]NASA scientists have been using satellite images to monitor the situation. While about half of the ice sheet usually melts during an average summer, this year experts were shocked to discover that in less than a week the amount of the ice sheet that had melted went from just 40% to a whopping 97%. One scientist at JPL was so surprised by the results that he had to double checked with them that it wasn't simply a data error.
NASA's Cryosphere program manager Tom Wagner has been studying what these changes could mean and what brought them about. "We have abundant evidence that Greenland is losing ice, probably because of global warming, and it's significantly contributing to sea level rise," he said. On the topic of warmer ocean waters eating away at the ice he added "it seems likely that's correlated with anthropogenic warming."
Unprecedented melting of Greenland's ice sheet this month has stunned NASA scientists and has highlighted broader concerns that the region is losing a remarkable amount of ice overall.
Source:
Huffington Post |
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