NASA - Greenland Melt Season Earlier, Affecting Larger Area

[hatrack]

"What might at first be mistaken for a series of images showing the approach of summer on the edge of the Greenland ice sheet in fact shows an increase in melting over the past several years. The three images above show the melting in June of 2001, 2002 and 2003. Since 2001, the amount of melting along the edges of Greelnand's ice cap has inceased significantly.

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Scientists recently documented that the seasonal thaw along the margins of the Greelland ice sheet has been starting much earlier in the year and impacting a larger area than in the past quarter of a century. Sea ice in the region has been declining at the same time."

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http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15341

On edit - missing word

[JitterbugPerfume]

1. Nothing else is going to matter much when

When the floods and the global warming comes

because we will be living in a man made hell

[hatrack]

2. Followup - NASA Article On Record 2002 Melt Season, Trends

"Konrad Steffen arrived on the Greenland Ice Sheet for the 2002 summer fieldwork season and immediately observed that something significant was happening in the Arctic. Pools of water already spotted the ice surface, and melting was occurring where it never had before. 'That year the melt was so early and so intense - it really jumped out at me. I'd never seen the seasonal melt occur that high on the ice sheet before, and it had never started so early in the spring,' said Steffen, principal scientist and interim director at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado.

By the end of the 2002 season, the total area of surface melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet had broken all known records.

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Seasonal melt areas on the Greenland Ice Sheet are generally located along the edges of the ice sheet at its lowest points. In 2002, however, the melt started unusually early and progressed higher up the ice sheet than at any time in the past 24 years. Surface melting extended up to 6,560 feet (2,000 meters) in elevation in the northeast portion of the island, where temperatures normally are too cold for melting to occur. In addition, the total melt area covered 265,000 square miles (686,350 square kilometers), representing a 16 percent increase above the maximum melt area measured in the past 24 years.

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Steffen and (ed. - Dr. Robert ) Serreze believe the accelerated melt in 2002 may be linked to shifts in Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation patterns. Air circulation is driven by pressure differentials, and in 2002 unusual stationary low-pressure areas occurred in the Arctic. A relatively stationary low-pressure cyclone over the Atlantic Ocean northeast (sic?)of Greenland moved air from the North Atlantic onto the ice sheet, which is rare. While it is normal for cyclones to form over the North Atlatntic, they are usually quite dynamic and are not 'locked' in one place, as occurred during the summer of 2002.

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Some researchers, however, believe that recent Arctic warming is only a recurring peak in a long-term Arctic climate cycle. A group of Alaskan researchers recently published their assessment of Russian long-term observations of air temperatures from coastal stations, and sea-ice extend and fast-ice thickness from Arctic seas. They found a great deal of variability in Arctic temperatures, with cyclic fluctuations on a timescale of 60 to 80 years. A climate cycle of this length might mean that the Arctic will cool again soon, rather than continue warming."

EDIT

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/vanishing/

[pmbryant]

3. Thanks for posting this

Interesting article.

And that is a very cool website!

:bounce:

--Peter

[hatrack]

4. Yeah, Earth Observatory's a really neat site

There's almost always something arresting online there, whether aesthetically or intellectually.