NSF Study - Atmospheric "Cap" Over Interior Greenland Limiting Melt Loss - For Now
Though the Greenland Ice Sheet’s coastal areas have been experiencing rapid melting, a large part of the interior of that ice sheet has stayed stable, but a latest study suggested that it may not sustain.
Researchers have discovered that very slight part of the snow and ice on the huge interior of the ice sheet has been lost to the atmosphere via evaporation due to a powerful thermal ‘lid’ that basically traps the moisture and sends it back to the surface where it refreezes. But, there are clues that the lid has started becoming leaky with the rise in global temperatures. The researchers said that there could be a threshold at which warming will become enough to turn on a switch, destabilizing the snow surface.
The study has been funded by the National Science Foundation, and its results have been published in journal Science Advances. Latest measurements from a research tower atop the Greenland ice sheet have helped in solving the mystery about the quantity of snow piles up on the ice sheet.
David Noone, an Oregon State University professor, an atmospheric scientist and the study’s principal investigator, said usually the air temperature decreases when we go up, but close to the surface in Greenland, the temperature increases making atmosphere warmer. Noone added that the surface is chilled, but the temperate can increase around 20 degrees on climbing only 30 to 40 feet up in air. Noone said that the difference is sufficient to feel and notice the difference between toes and nose.
EDIT
http://nhv.us/content/16055887-stability-may-not-continue-interior-greenland-ice-sheet-study
