The Greenland surface melt story
On 25 July the media went big on a satellite measurement showing 97% of the surface of Greenland showed the signature you would expect from melt, in July. I understand there are many ways to tell this story, but this is the way I saw it develop from the perspective of a polar oceanographer.
Greenland's massive ice sheet has melted over an unusually large area this summer, Nasa says, describing it as a... bbc.in/PhjjQ1- So this is the original story posted at dawn UK time. The original press release was published 24 July 2012
Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt - NASA ScienceSatellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt July 24, 2012: For several days this month, Greenland's surface ice cover m...- So I tweeted that story - but I thought that surface melt isn't just the real story. That was the paper published in PNAS yesterday linked with this.
Greenland surface melt story: Paper in PNAS this week shows last year was heavy melt too & it did affect ice mass bit.ly/MGoLxN- That was the paper published in PNAS on Tuesday 24 July and is "Open Access". If there is ever a need for yet another "open access is brilliant" statement, it is here.
Bedrock displacements in Greenland manifest ice mass variations, climate cycles and climate changeEdited by David T. Sandwell, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, and approved June 11, 2012 (received for review March 19,...- What this paper shows is that there is they have found a link between surface melt and bedrock displacement. This implies a link to ice mass.So bed mass displaces upwards implies that there is a reduction in ice on the land. Unfortunately I got the year wrong. It was actually a year earlier and 2010, not 2011. So I tweeted that.
- doh - it was 2010 not 2011 for greenland melt - but implication is last year wld be expected increased loss too. #ineedsomecoffee
- But given last 2011 surface melt data:
2011 Greenland Melt Season : Image of the DayExcept for the edges, Greenland is buried in ice year round. Each winter, snowfall covers even the margin, leaving the entire island whit...- which was above the long term average (but less than 2010), we could expect a similar result to that demonstrated in the PNAS paper. So I tweeted it and made the link explicit.
- Widespread surface Melting on Greenland 1.usa.gov/MGpK0T is linked to ice mass loss & so sea level bit.ly/MGoLxN
- Then I made a link to the fact that the sea ice is at a low. Sure there are weather patterns going on here but there is a background of a long term trend
- put greenland surrface melt & arctic sea ice tracking at low level bit.ly/LLIwCH clear evidence of arctic amplification? Tundra next
- I thought about it a bit more and Jason Box ( @climate_ice ) has been working for a long time in Greenland - I have been listening to him for a long time through publications and conference presentations he has given. He published something on his blog in January 2012, which showed this was going to happen.
Meltfactor.org " Blog Archive " Greenland Ice Sheet Getting DarkerFreshly fallen snow under clear skies reflects 84% (albedo= 0.84) of the sunlight falling on it (Konzelmann and Ohmura, 1995). This refle...- So the ice is getting darker, and he said "This decline is not only over the lowest elevations, but occurs high on the ice sheet where melting is limited."
If the ice is getting darker then it will absorb more solar radiation. - In June 2012 @climate_ice posted
Meltfactor.org " Blog Archive " Greenland ice sheet reflectivity at record low, particularly at high elevationsAn updated compilation of NASA MODIS observations of Greenland ice surface reflectivity through 22 June, 2012 indicates that now, well in...- For me the clearest statement is:
"Perhaps most remarkable about the 2012 pattern is how much darker the snow and ice is becoming, not only at the lowest elevations around the ice sheet periphery where melting is always most intese, but in the higher elevation net snow accumulation area."
but the context is as he said "It’s not a runaway loop, just an amplifier. A record setting melt season is likely if this pattern keeps up this year." He was unsurprisingly correct. Plus there was clearly something "odd" going on with the weather.
So I tweeted that. - In Jan 2012 @climate_ice - Greenland Ice Sheet is Getting Darker bit.ly/ywMyEA in June he wrote bit.ly/LMwVAt
- So the observation is what Jason Box (and I) would expect!, and something many saw coming.
But then it got more interesting. Marcus Brigstocke saw the Grauniad piece on the story.
(Marcus is one of the few standup comedians who has brave enough to takle climate change and AGW http://www.marcusbrigstocke.com/biog.php ) 
RT @guardianscience: Greenland ice sheet melted at unprecedented rate gu.com/p/3997d/tf MB Erm... Ok? Everyone ok? With this? Ok then...- Dr Tamsin Edwards (Bristol University), Dr Ruth Mottram (Danish Meteorological Institute) and myself tried to help him with an explanation.
Did you find this story interesting? like or comment as 8 already did!
Liked!
- Mark BrandonThanks for that Xavier. It's a pretty exciting way to tell comples stories. I have my eye out for the next one now2012-08-02T20:18:07.522Z
- Xavier DammanFantastic first story on a very important topic. I enjoyed reading it!2012-07-29T15:56:40.992Z
- Mark BrandonThanks for that Xavier. It's a pretty exciting way to tell comples stories. I have my eye out for the next one now2012-08-02T20:18:07.522Z
- Xavier DammanFantastic first story on a very important topic. I enjoyed reading it!2012-07-29T15:56:40.992Z
