Satellites reveal sudden Greenland ice melt

By +Frank B.
in Science News & Discussion

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Grand Master

+Frank B. Subscriber²

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Satellites reveal sudden Greenland ice melt

_61790899_ice_reuters.jpg

The first image shows Greenland's ice sheet on 8 July, the second reveals the thawed area just four days later

Greenland's massive ice sheet has melted this month over an unusually large area, Nasa has said.

Scientists said the "unprecedented" melting took place over a larger area than has been detected in three decades of satellite observation.

Melting even occurred at Greenland's coldest and highest place, Summit station.

The thawed ice area jumped from 40% of the ice sheet to 97% in just four days from 8 July.

Although about half of Greenland's ice sheet normally melts over the summer months, the speed and scale of this year's melting surprised scientists, who described the phenomenon as "extraordinary".

Nasa said that nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its centre, which is 3km (two miles) thick, experienced some degree of melting at its surface.

"When we see melt in places that we haven't seen before, at least in a long period of time, it makes you sit up and ask what's happening," Nasa chief scientist Waleed Abdalati said.

"It's a big signal, the meaning of which we're going to sort out for years to come."

He said that, because this Greenland-wide melting has happened before, Nasa is not yet able to determine whether this is a natural but rare event, or if it has been sparked by man-made global warming.

Scientists said they believed that much of Greenland's ice was already freezing again.

Until now, the most extensive melting seen by satellites in the past three decades was about 55% of the area.

Ice last melted at Summit station in 1889, ice core records show.

The news comes just days after Nasa satellite imagery revealed that a massive iceberg, twice the size of Manhattan, had broken off a glacier in Greenland.

"This event, combined with other natural but uncommon phenomena, such as the large calving event last week on Petermann Glacier, are part of a complex story," said Nasa's Tom Wagner.

Source: BBC News

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Iridium

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+Mephistopheles why do you use miles? Arent you from germany? The only 2 ignorant countries using those units are the US and England and they make up like a combined 6% of the planets population. Also the father of Nasa, german Wernher Von Braun desgined the Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 to the moon, despised imperial units and only used metric in his rocket designs and addresses to his staff and colleagues. The metric system is the ONLY scientifically credible measurement system for science.

Grand Master

+Frank B. Subscriber²

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+Mephistopheles why do you use miles? Arent you from germany? The only 2 ignorant countries using those units are the US and England and they make up like a combined 6% of the planets population. Also the father of Nasa, german Wernher Von Braun desgined the Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 to the moon, despised imperial units and only used metric in his rocket designs and addresses to his staff and colleagues. The metric system is the ONLY scientifically credible measurement system for science.

The article uses miles, I use SI units myself. What does this have to do with the thread though?

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

+Mephistopheles why do you use miles? Arent you from germany? The only 2 ignorant countries using those units are the US and England and they make up like a combined 6% of the planets population. Also the father of Nasa, german Wernher Von Braun desgined the Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 to the moon, despised imperial units and only used metric in his rocket designs and addresses to his staff and colleagues. The metric system is the ONLY scientifically credible measurement system for science.

Why is a country 'ignorant' if they use a different unit ?

Damn unit police are here again

Grand Master

Hum

Posted
Posted
The metric system is the ONLY scientifically credible measurement system for science.

A meter is based on the distance of the North pole to the Equater, divided by one 10-millionth.

I don't see how that is any more 'scientific' than a foot based on the average length of human feet. :laugh:

Grand Master

neufuse Veteran

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A meter is based on the distance of the North pole to the Equater, divided by one 10-millionth.

I don't see how that is any more 'scientific' than a foot based on the average length of human feet. :laugh:

BUT BUT BUT ITS ALL ABOUT THE TENZ!!!10 10 10 10

oooh sorry just had to...

Grand Master

MikeChipshop Member

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The only 2 ignorant countries using those units are the US and England and they make up like a combined 6% of the planets population.

I only see one ignorant thing here and i just quoted them...

Grand Master

ANON86364

Posted
Posted

When I started reading this, I thought for that much ice melting that fast, surely there is a mistake somewhere. But I guess once the temperature reaches "critical mass", it all just melts the same. Really is extraordinary. I hope it's not entirely our fault.

Grand Master

neufuse Veteran

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When I started reading this, I thought for that much ice melting that fast, surely there is a mistake somewhere. But I guess once the temperature reaches "critical mass", it all just melts the same. Really is extraordinary. I hope it's not entirely our fault.

the article even states this happens every 150 years or so naturally

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