Greenland ice sheet melting faster than expected

Chris

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May 30, 2008
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ScienceDaily (June 13, 2009) — The Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than expected, according to a new study led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher and published in the journal Hydrological Processes.

Study results indicate that the ice sheet may be responsible for nearly 25 percent of global sea rise in the past 13 years. The study also shows that seas now are rising by more than 3 millimeters a year--more than 50 percent faster than the average for the 20th century.

UAF researcher Sebastian H. Mernild and colleagues from the United States, United Kingdom and Denmark discovered that from 1995 to 2007, overall precipitation on the ice sheet decreased while surface ablation--the combination of evaporation, melting and calving of the ice sheet--increased. According to Mernild’s new data, since 1995 the ice sheet lost an average of 265 cubic kilometers per year, which has contributed to about 0.7 millimeters per year in global sea level rise. These figures do not include thermal expansion--the expansion of the ice volume in response to heat--so the contribution could be up to twice that.

The Greenland ice sheet has been of considerable interest to researchers over the last few years as one of the major indicators of climate change. In late 2000/early 2001 and in 2007, major glacier calving events sent up to 44 square miles of ice into the sea at a time.

Greenland Ice Sheet Melting Faster Than Expected; Larger Contributor To Sea-level Rise Than Thought
 
Homes were swept away and villagers reported missing...
eek.gif

Dramatic images after Greenland tsunami
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 : Homes were swept away and villagers reported missing after a rare earthquake hit the area on Sunday.
A rare magnitude-four earthquake hit Greenland's west coast on Sunday, producing a surge of water that swept away homes and led to reports of a number of people missing.

Joint Arctic Command, the group tasked with the search and rescue mission, has since published images of the aftermath of the disaster and told the BBC that it continues to monitor the situation, warning that further incidents could take place.

Homes were submerged and washed away after a tsunami hit the village of Nuugaatsiaq, north-western Greenland. Rescuers used liferafts to sweep the area after four people were reported missing. A number of injuries were also reported after 39 people were evacuated from Nuugaatsiaq. The surge of water is believed to have swept away 11 homes in the small village.

The authorities said the tsunami was caused by a magnitude-four earthquake, which is rare for the area. Police chief Bjørn Tegner Bay said he was unable to confirm whether there had been fatalities. Meteorologists said it was "not normal" for such an earthquake to hit Greenland and warned of aftershocks.

Photos
 
Just more crap from the department of "The Sky is Falling"....

Greenland-son-ice-mass.png


accumulatedmap.png

Source: DMI. “Map of the accumulated surface mass balance (in mm water equivalent) from September 1st to now.”
 
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/great-greenland-meltdown

The great Greenland meltdown

By Eli KintischFeb. 23, 2017 , 8:00 AM

From a helicopter clattering over Greenland's interior on a bright July day, the ice sheet below tells a tale of disintegration. Long, roughly parallel cracks score the surface, formed by water and pressure; impossibly blue lakes of meltwater fill depressions; and veiny networks of azure streams meander west, flowing to the edge of the ice sheet and eventually out to sea.

The scientists flying over the world's largest thawing chunk of ice have selected a particularly auspicious summer to be studying the melt. The edges of Greenland's 1.7-million-km2 ice sheet regularly melt in summer, even in years when the ice sheet as a whole grows because of snowfall in its higher, colder center. But in 2016, the melting started early and spread inland fast. By April, 12% of the ice sheet's surface was melting; in an average year the melt doesn't reach 10% until June. And just before the scientists' journey, a violent river of meltwater, one of hundreds coursing out from the ice sheet, swept away a sensor, bolted to a bridge to measure the water's turbidity. It was the second time in 4 years such a device had fallen victim to the liquid fury of the glaciers. "I've been doing these trips for years, but I've never seen so much water," the helicopter pilot told the researchers.

In Greenland, the great melt is on. The decline of Greenland's ice sheet is a familiar story, but until recently, massive calving glaciers that carry ice from the interior and crumble into the sea got most of the attention. Between 2000 and 2008, such "dynamic" changes accounted for about as much mass loss as surface melting and shifts in snowfall. But the balance tipped dramatically between 2011 and 2014, when satellite data and modeling suggested that 70% of the annual 269 billion tons of snow and ice shed by Greenland was lost through surface melt, not calving. The accelerating surface melt has doubled Greenland's contribution to global sea level rise since 1992–2011, to 0.74 mm per year. "Nobody expected the ice sheet to lose so much mass so quickly," says geophysicist Isabella Velicogna of the University of California, Irvine. "Things are happening a lot faster than we expected."

Information and data from real scientists, not obese junkies on the AM radio.
 
Just more crap from the department of "The Sky is Falling"....

Greenland-son-ice-mass.png


accumulatedmap.png

Source: DMI. “Map of the accumulated surface mass balance (in mm water equivalent) from September 1st to now.”

This thread was "revived" from a year ago.. So if ya wanna know any REAL news about GW, you got to look at the stuff the warmers AREN'T posting. Because it means the data is not making them happy...
 
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/great-greenland-meltdown

The great Greenland meltdown

By Eli KintischFeb. 23, 2017 , 8:00 AM

From a helicopter clattering over Greenland's interior on a bright July day, the ice sheet below tells a tale of disintegration. Long, roughly parallel cracks score the surface, formed by water and pressure; impossibly blue lakes of meltwater fill depressions; and veiny networks of azure streams meander west, flowing to the edge of the ice sheet and eventually out to sea.

The scientists flying over the world's largest thawing chunk of ice have selected a particularly auspicious summer to be studying the melt. The edges of Greenland's 1.7-million-km2 ice sheet regularly melt in summer, even in years when the ice sheet as a whole grows because of snowfall in its higher, colder center. But in 2016, the melting started early and spread inland fast. By April, 12% of the ice sheet's surface was melting; in an average year the melt doesn't reach 10% until June. And just before the scientists' journey, a violent river of meltwater, one of hundreds coursing out from the ice sheet, swept away a sensor, bolted to a bridge to measure the water's turbidity. It was the second time in 4 years such a device had fallen victim to the liquid fury of the glaciers. "I've been doing these trips for years, but I've never seen so much water," the helicopter pilot told the researchers.

In Greenland, the great melt is on. The decline of Greenland's ice sheet is a familiar story, but until recently, massive calving glaciers that carry ice from the interior and crumble into the sea got most of the attention. Between 2000 and 2008, such "dynamic" changes accounted for about as much mass loss as surface melting and shifts in snowfall. But the balance tipped dramatically between 2011 and 2014, when satellite data and modeling suggested that 70% of the annual 269 billion tons of snow and ice shed by Greenland was lost through surface melt, not calving. The accelerating surface melt has doubled Greenland's contribution to global sea level rise since 1992–2011, to 0.74 mm per year. "Nobody expected the ice sheet to lose so much mass so quickly," says geophysicist Isabella Velicogna of the University of California, Irvine. "Things are happening a lot faster than we expected."

Information and data from real scientists, not obese junkies on the AM radio.

The plots above says this whining is just drama for the faithful. We've discussed surface loss before. It's LOST one day and REGAINED the next. And it can't be accurately measured unless the mass ACTUALLY EVAPORATES.. According to the plots above -- 2017 ice MASS is good shape compared to recent history..

Find some ACTUAL data that refutes that.
 

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