Unprecedented Clear Skies Drove Remarkable Melting in Greenland
https://eos.org/articles/unprecedented-clear-skies-drove-remarkable-melting-in-greenland
Source: By Hannah Thomasy, Eos/AGU.
Excerpt: It’s no surprise that warming temperatures are bad news for the Greenland Ice Sheet, a body of ice that’s 3 times the size of Texas. But temperature isn’t the only factor that controls how fast this monstrous ice sheet is melting. New research [https://www.the-cryosphere.net/14/1209/2020/tc-14-1209-2020.pdf] from scientists at Columbia University, NASA, and the University of Liège in Belgium shows that atmospheric conditions play an important role in driving major melting events. In terms of melting, 2019 was one of the worst years for the Greenland Ice Sheet since measurements began in 1948. ...Lead author of the new study Marco Tedesco, a climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said that unusual atmospheric conditions in 2019 were important contributors to this record-breaking loss. In much of Greenland, anticyclonic conditions were abnormally persistent. These conditions made it hard for clouds to form, so clear skies prevailed. “When you have clear skies,” Tedesco said, “you have more energy from the Sun reaching the ice surface, which means that you have an advancement of melting.” ...What happens in Greenland could have important implications for the rest of the planet: Tedesco said that the Greenland Ice Sheet is currently the largest single contributor to global sea level rise. ...If this high-risk ice melted, he said, it would be enough to raise sea levels by 3 meters, or nearly 10 feet. In an even more severe scenario, if the entire ice sheet melted, sea level would rise by 7 meters, or nearly 23 feet, which would be catastrophic for many coastal cities and for the hundreds of millions of people who live close to sea level....
Source: By Hannah Thomasy, Eos/AGU.
Excerpt: It’s no surprise that warming temperatures are bad news for the Greenland Ice Sheet, a body of ice that’s 3 times the size of Texas. But temperature isn’t the only factor that controls how fast this monstrous ice sheet is melting. New research [https://www.the-cryosphere.net/14/1209/2020/tc-14-1209-2020.pdf] from scientists at Columbia University, NASA, and the University of Liège in Belgium shows that atmospheric conditions play an important role in driving major melting events. In terms of melting, 2019 was one of the worst years for the Greenland Ice Sheet since measurements began in 1948. ...Lead author of the new study Marco Tedesco, a climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said that unusual atmospheric conditions in 2019 were important contributors to this record-breaking loss. In much of Greenland, anticyclonic conditions were abnormally persistent. These conditions made it hard for clouds to form, so clear skies prevailed. “When you have clear skies,” Tedesco said, “you have more energy from the Sun reaching the ice surface, which means that you have an advancement of melting.” ...What happens in Greenland could have important implications for the rest of the planet: Tedesco said that the Greenland Ice Sheet is currently the largest single contributor to global sea level rise. ...If this high-risk ice melted, he said, it would be enough to raise sea levels by 3 meters, or nearly 10 feet. In an even more severe scenario, if the entire ice sheet melted, sea level would rise by 7 meters, or nearly 23 feet, which would be catastrophic for many coastal cities and for the hundreds of millions of people who live close to sea level....