[ad_1]
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A satellite tv for pc picture exhibits Nuuk Fjord, Greenland July 29, 2021. European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery – Processed by @DEFIS_EU/Handout by way of REUTERS
2/4
By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – With local weather change fueling excessive temperatures throughout the Arctic, Greenland misplaced an enormous quantity of ice on Wednesday with sufficient melting to cowl the U.S. state of Florida in 2 inches (5.1 cm) of water, scientists stated.
It was the third-biggest ice loss for Greenland in a single day since 1950. The opposite two data, additionally inside the final decade, occurred in 2012 and 2019.
The speedy soften adopted heat air being trapped over the Arctic island by a change in atmospheric circulation patterns, scientists stated, noting that there might be extra ice misplaced.
On Wednesday alone, some 22 gigatonnes of ice melted – with 12 gigatonnes flowing to the ocean and 10 gigatonnes absorbed by the snowpack the place it might refreeze, stated Xavier Fettweis, a local weather scientist on the College of Liege in Belgium.
Polar Portal, a gaggle of Danish Arctic analysis establishments, described it in a tweet as a “huge melting occasion.” Whereas that quantity was lower than the file single-day ice soften in 2019, this week’s occasion lined a bigger space, the group stated.
Such occasions can create suggestions loops that drive additional warming and melting in Greenland, stated Marco Tedesco, a local weather scientist at Columbia College. As snow melts, it exposes darker ice or floor beneath, which absorbs extra daylight slightly than reflecting it again out of the environment.
“It actually positions Greenland to be extra weak to the remainder of the melting season,” stated Tedesco, analysis professor at Columbia College’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
Scientists have estimated that melting from Greenland’s ice sheet – the second-biggest on Earth after Antarctica’s – has prompted round 25% of world sea stage rise seen over the previous couple of many years.
Tedesco and different scientists have warned that fashions used to challenge future ice loss don’t seize the impression of adjusting atmospheric circulation patterns – which means they might be underestimating the long run melting of Greenland, which is situated between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.
In the meantime, the Arctic is warming quicker than the remainder of the planet, resulting from components together with vanishing ice within the Arctic Ocean, which exposes darker water that absorbs photo voltaic radiation.
On Wednesday, air temperatures over Greenland had been “worrisome,” the EU stated, with temperatures in Constable Pynt on the east of the island hitting 23.2 C (73.8 Fahrenheit).
Fusion Media or anybody concerned with Fusion Media won’t settle for any legal responsibility for loss or harm because of reliance on the knowledge together with knowledge, quotes, charts and purchase/promote alerts contained inside this web site. Please be absolutely knowledgeable relating to the dangers and prices related to buying and selling the monetary markets, it is likely one of the riskiest funding types potential.
[ad_2]
Source link