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Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC, and Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory
About 40 percent of Greenland's ice sheet thawed at or near the surface on July 8. Four days later, the melt had dramatically accelerated and an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface had thawed.
Three satellites found that 97 percent of Greenland -- the land mass second only to Antarctica for its volume of ice -- underwent a thaw never before seen in 33 years of satellite tracking, NASA reported Tuesday.
Satellite experts at first didn't trust their readings, especially since they showed an incredible acceleration. Over four days, Greenland's ice sheet -- which covers 683,000 square miles -- went from 40 percent in thaw to nearly entirely in thaw.
"This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: Was this real or was it due to a data error?" Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif., said in NASA's statement about the findings.
Scientists on the ground in Greenland had been reporting an unusually warm summer thaw, including damage at a snow airfield and strong runoff threatening a bridge, Tom Wagner, who manages NASA's ice research programs, told NBC News.
Ice cores from Greenland's highest region do reveal that such island-wide thaws have happened every 150 years or so, at least over the last few thousand years, but the fear now is that it might occur much more frequently due to warming sea and air temperatures.
"We can't lose sight of the fact that Greenland's ice sheet is losing 150 gigatons of ice a year," Wagner said. That translates into raising sea levels by one-one hundredth of an inch. Additionally, the danger of greater warming and greater melt persists.
"If we continue to observe melting events like this in upcoming years, it will be worrisome," said Lora Koenig, a NASA glaciologist who helped analyze the satellite data.
Monitoring stations on land "showed temperatures above freezing, confirming that the surface was melting for the entire ice sheet," Konrad Steffen, director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, told NBC News.
Since then, he added, "temperatures have fallen below freezing for the higher elevations but still are melting below 1500 meters."
The director of the top ice research center in the U.S. said the discovery fits into "the larger picture of a strongly warming Arctic."
A large glacier, twice the size of Manhattan, split off on July 16. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
"Arctic sea ice extent this summer is so far tracking at very low, near record levels, and the ice cover is unusually diffuse," Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Center told NBC News.
On top of that, he said, the seasonal melt that followed the 2012 winter "started unusually early over most of the Arctic Ocean."
The center's latest report, issued Tuesday, noted that" Arctic sea ice continued to track at levels far below average through the middle of July, with open water in the Kara and Barents seas reaching as far north as typically seen during September."
Thomas Mote, a University of Georgia climatologist who looked at the satellite data, said the melt followed an unusual series of warm air ridges over Greenland since late May, with the strongest coinciding with the rapid thaw in mid-July.
Each successive ridge, Mote told NBC News, was "stronger than the previous one" and it looks like the pattern has finally broken down.
The ridges happened just as a cyclical weather phase known as the North Atlantic Oscillation shifted. "Together, they produced near perfect conditions for this event," Mote added.
Related: Huge Greenland iceberg breaks off glacier
Because they hold so much ice on land, Greenland and Antarctica have the potential to raise sea levels significantly if warming continues or worsens.
Sea levels have already risen by about 8 inches in the last century, partly due to some ice melt but also thermal expansion caused by warming seas.
The U.N. climate panel estimates sea level could rise between 7 inches and nearly two feet this century -- the latter a scenario that could prove catastrophic for many coastal areas around the globe.
NASA said researchers had not yet determined whether this summer's Greenland thaw would be significant enough to raise sea levels.
Greenland has enough ice to raise sea levels by 23 feet if it all melted off.
A recent study found that it could take a long-term increase in global temperatures of just 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit to completely melt Greenland's ice sheet in 2,000 years.
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Ice pack in south pole has been reported to be thickest in recorded history last fall.
Gasp, How can that be ??? Global Refriginating, Quick Buy Blankets the Glaciers are Coming, The Glaciers are Coming !!!!!
Meanwhile at the local think tank....
The real news is... "Why are we so amazed when we observe climate shift?"
Climates shift, that is what they do and always will. When I read about climate shift observations especially when the authors seem amazed or perplexed I wonder if they hold a view which says the climate will hold in a sweet spot so that it is convenient to humanity."
All the solar planets have climates that shift cyclically, with or without life on them. Historical artifacts show clearly the climate shifts rapidly and regularly... what would be useful is admittance of the immutable fact and some proper suggestions on how populations could effectively adapt to the changes and what we can expect in the immediate and longer term.
No, a climate shift tax will not help. A climate control knob could never dial in a perpetual ideal... not on the surface anyway.
"what would be useful is admittance of the immutable fact"
EVERYONE admits that the climate shifts naturally; EVERYONE knows it. The climate scientists study those changes in great depth to learn more about how the system works. If you are not aware of this, then you are not aware of much in the climate science field.
Who cares. Let it melt. It's just ice
The earth is a living thing. At one time the continents were united. We've had Ice Ages. We've had periods of warming. I do believe the earth is impacted by the billions of people living on it. I also believe the earth has a way of healing itself even if it means thinning out the population. The cycles will always be there or the planet would not be alive and able to sustain the life of its inhabitants.
It is that " thinning out the population" that we are trying to avoid. Sure, we could probably use a smaller population, but human misery is not the way to achieve it.
Human misery is CAUSED by a large population not "climate change" which has been occurring for many millions of years.
wow....
Hey, look at you, free water front property. You owe me and my Mustang Cobra big time!
Must have been all those cows farting that caused the melt 150 years ago, aye Gore?
Nissan makes the Leaf, not Honda.
Wow, it's happening! I guess the Mayans were right. This winter could be a very large storm in the North that will reestablish the glaciers in North America and cause a miniature ice-age. This will be a major shift in global climate and we will begin the long cycle of gently warming and melting again. I guess I'm going to vacation in Australia this winter!
If the world ends in my lifetime I am totally going to agree with all of you environmentalists, until then GFY
That was a very informative and cogent point you just made. Perhaps you should publish it alongside the rest of the scientific literature so that it can be debated by grownups.
What will the title of your grant be: "Anthropomorphic gases and their relationship to non-linear geometric models of self copulation for the next 40 years"
Sounds like an interesting talk. Let me know when you plan to present it. I can't wait to see the figures!
dinsmo, nobody says the world is gong to end, so there is no one for you to diagree with on that point. But if you don't care about any human suffering short of that, I feel sorry for you.
I thought jock's were cool, way to break the mold. And for the other guy, everything you said was over my head, I'm just a lowly business owner that provides jobs for 17 families in my area, fortunately Greenland is not one of my priorities being that the customer base there is very small. Lemme know if that fancy science talk happens, maybe I'll DVR it.
Lets think this through a Little, It's July. If it's going to melt this is the month, but bear in mind this is a warmer year everywhere. I don't know as I would sound the "Sky is Falling" Alarm just yet.
So the fact that it is warmer everywhere is of no concern to you? Being warmer everywhere is what we call global warming.
I agree that if the ice cores say big melts have occurred before that we should be cautious to say the sky is falling, but I would like to get a closer look at that data than just what a blurb in the news can provide before I discount the information. A few ice cores are not nearly as encompassing as complete satellite coverage. We don't know how previous melts unfolded - they could have taken years, or they could have been catastrophic like this one. For the record, I would call a 97% melt over 4 days catastrophic for an ice mass this size.
We cannot compare this event to any previous events because we do not have comparable data, we only have sporadic ice cores. However the fact that the global mean temperature, as well as the global mean ocean temperature, are both at record levels (much hotter than 150 years ago), and that Arctic ice extent has been diminishing year after year for at least a decade, virtually all glaciers on the planet are receding faster every year, and the permafrost from the Northern Territories to Siberia are melting away it is reasonable to assume that climate is driving this melt not just some random and temporary weather pattern over Greenland.
I cannot say for certain based on this single event, but given all of the other indicators and the physics behind atmospheric CO2 I wouldn't be surprised to see this phenomenon occur every few years or so going forward. That would be solid evidence beyond all attempts at rebuttal. I see no use in politicizing this or being overly emotional one way or the other. We must continue to observe and measure, but soon we will have an answer and the time for pointless debate will be over.
Good info here.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/25/paging-aps-seth-borenstein-hey-seth-wheres-the-beef/
And great article on how the temperature record has been manipulated.
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/history-of-how-this-fraud-was-perpetrated/
Yes, Mr. Goddard, we know the denier arguments well by now. I still wonder at their motivation though. If anyone looks at the science objectively, they know that the climate scientists at least have a very good case on this, so the attacks on them have to be politically motivated character assassination. At least I can't think of any other excuse.
It is important to understand that climate change is not the same as daily local weather phenomena. You may be experiencing an unusually cold day where you live--that is irrelevant. The issue is the pattern that has emerged when looking at GLOBAL AVERAGE temperatures taken over many, many years. That being said, extreme storms and unusual weather phenomena are completely consistent with the climate change model.
The global average temp has increased 1-2 degrees in the past century, and the trend is exponential, not linear. A relatively small change in global ave. temp. can have a significant impact on regional climates, as we have witnessed during the past few years.
While it is true that climate shifts have taken place naturally in earth's history, the alarmingly atypical factor in the current trend (beginning at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and especially during the past few decades) is the RATE at which average global temperature (and atmospheric CO2 concentration) increase is happening -- measurably faster than anything previously measured in ice core or geological/mineralogical samples that provide evidence of past climates.
Record heat waves. Record flooding. Record blizzards. Record tornados. Record droughts. Record wildfires. Record permafrost thaws and ice sheet melting.
Welcome to the new normal.
I built me a solar furnace for my house.It produces 30% of my heat and i use a one hunred watt solar panel for my ceiling lights and some other things when i'm not using my inside lighting.I also took this reflective material that has bubbles in it and rolled it out on my roof on the south side.Before i put this stuff on the roof my attic would make you melt.Now when it is a hundred outside you can still get in the attic and not sweat.I put bricks on this sheet stuff on the roof.They use this stuff to go under the sheet metal on pole barns.I have my solar panel on a pole.When my airconditioner is on in the house now it feels like a meat locker.Next year i'm going to paint my roof white.The shingles are ten years old.
People are just to stuborn in the US.Especially when it comes to global warming.Half the population still believes there is no cure for cancer and there is.Thank God people are using it.The AMA,doctors and the feds will swear up and down there is no cure for cancer,but it is for sure some of them are using it.The world climate is changing.I never heard of a wall cloud untill three years ago.This is definitly change and not for the good.I don't think we should try to experimate with mother nature.When someone lost a drone in Iran this set the scene for more groups to do the same thing.Like Mexico.
More B.S; New World Order Propaganda, and doctored photos and information. Sorry, didn't believe it the first time when it was disproved, don't believe it now. Just the Worldwide Communist NWO SatanistNews Media at work
Myself, and plenty of other "right-wingers" are satisfied that there is sufficient evidence that what is going on is unprecedented, and coincides with mans increasing impact.
Virtually all "reputable" scientists around the world are seeing changes that the Earth has never made this swiftly.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it is real. It has nothing to do with Communism, or the N.W.O.
You can believe whatever you want. Don't tell me what to !
You forgot the "/s" I mean really, communist NWO satanist news media??
LMFAO! When I see comments like this I know my investments in tinfoil manufacturers was the best investment of my life!
What will be the affect of billions / trillions of tons of weight being lifted from Greenland be on seismic activity ?
Quote: We can't lose sight of the fact that Greenland's ice sheet is losing 150 gigatons of ice a year," Wagner said. That translates into raising sea levels by one-one hundredth of an inch.
Help, help I'm drowning!
These geophysical changes should play very well into China's strategic designs to mine and exploit the rare mineral wealth of Grønland and other parts of the Arctic, a very touchy subject in Scandinavia at the moment. Accordingly, why should China even try to achieve any reductions in Greenhouse gases if their present levels of pollution simply help to facilitate their larger and ravenous world designs?
Those who blame rising CO2 levels on volcanoes and rising temperatures on solar flares have to have as a basic assumption that volcanic activity and solar storm rates have dramatically increased over the past 150 years compared to the last 1-1/2 million years. This is a flawed assumption and negates arguments along these lines.
What worries me is how many crop failures we can endure. If you look at a map of the current drought, it not only reaches across the breadbasket of America but the main grain producing regions of Canada, Europe and Russia.
There are things that could be done we must first acknowledge the problem.
Global warming is real. What's not established is whether people are to blame or if it's part of a natural oscillation of recurring warm ups and cool downs. Either way, the consensus is that if temperatures continue to warm, sea levels may rise and a disaster may ensue.
Just an additional thought: I wonder, if the water level were to increase drastically, if the shifted weight of the water (Ice on land to water in oceans) would have much impact on the crust of the earth. For example, say Antarctica completely thawed. Would that result in ocean basins deepening due to the additional weight, or the continent of Antarctica being elevated and thus offsetting the rise in sea level?
No, what is not established is any natural mechanism in the climate system that could possibly be a candidate for causing natural warming. So without that basic piece of evidence the theory that it is just a natural cycle is nothing more than wishful thinking. Honestly, the natural cycle argument is predicated on the false notion that there is a great deal of ignorance about climate systems and dynamics that would leave open the possibility of an unknown mover of climate. This is false.
Climate systems and the natural events that drive them are fairly well understood. One of the most important drivers as it turns out is the composition of the atmosphere. CO2 and methane are huge players in this and the CO2 has been skyrocketing in concentration in the atmosphere. The single biggest known variable that could possibly be causing the changes we have been documenting for decades is rising CO2. The only detectable source of all that CO2 is human industry. Looking for an unknown natural variable means that we must ignore the single greatest known effector of climate (CO2) in favor of an undetected and unnecessary (according to the data) phenomenon. It's like looking for a ghost that slammed a door, when the window is open and the wind is blowing. We simply do not need to look somewhere else for a cause when the levels of CO2 more than explain the changes we see.
As for continental rebound: yes, this occurs. It is still occurring in North America - it takes thousands of years. But no, I would not expect ocean basins to deepen. Think about it. If sea levels go up a couple of feet (enough to cause serious damage to coastal communities) how much extra weight is there really on every square foot of ocean floor? A 2' rise in water times 1'squared = 2 cubic feet of water. This weighs approximately 125 lbs. An extra 125 lbs per square foot is not enough to collapse the sea floor and offset sea level rise, but even if it did it wouldn't happen overnight, it would take thousands of years.
My personal "feeling" is that man really is to blame at least in part. However, I don't rule out the potential for an unknown natural factor in global warming. For example, the understanding of el Niño and la Niña's effect on global climate is relatively new and still not fully understood. The NAO and NPO, likewise, aren't fully understood. It's not out of the realm of possibilities that there are other natural forces at work. It's important to recognize we don't know it all.
Sorry, I didn't specify a timing on the continental rebound, but agree that it would likely take hundreds, if not thousands of years. Still, if the continents rebound, I would expect the sea-floor to descend somewhere, even if it's millimeters. The continent has to be displacing some volume of mantle and when it rebounds, other locations should descend enough to equal that volume no longer occupied by the continent.
The problem with anyone from the right wing is this your living a illusion. Its not just global warming its almost every aspect of life where your corn fed and brushed like the fatted pig with lipstick by the right wing machine.Wake up its not to late to understand descent common sense not the half truths or the out and out lies you have been fed for generations
Lets face it most people don't believe or care about Global warming. The fact remains the more carbon we release into the atmosphere the warmer it will get. Most people are so caught up in their little lives they won't understand until their homes are flooded or burnt down or there are severe droughts. When I went to a north eastern state last winter and there was no snow on the ground thats when I realize something was wrong. Its just like if you take a frog and put it in hot water it will jump out, well if you take the same frog and put it in cool water and gradually warm the water up the frog will stay in the water and be cooked alive. That's whats going to happen with us all, this global warming is gradual and we will end up dead before realizing what is happening.
They're saying 50 % of the ice melted in 4 days? Seriously? There is no denying climate change, only that man is causing it!
On the upside, while liberals pay attention to the data and formulate ideas based on millions of years of data, republicans that ignore it may become extinct. Darwinism at its best...