Greenland broke a record by losing 532 billion tons of ice last year

Despite intense pressure to curb carbon emissions in controlling climate change, Greenland continues to lose its dense ice cover, sea levels rise and alarm bells are rung across several countries. The island lost 532 billion tons of ice in 2019 – the highest loss since 1948. It estimates the rate of more than 1 million tons per minute in 2019.

The amount of ice lost since 2009 was more than double the annual average in 2015 when NASA satellites began recording exactly how much ice was melting, according to a recent study in the Journal of Communication and Environment. There were about half the losses in July alone, during a historic heatwave that spread across Europe, in 2012, when the island lost 444 billion tons of mass from its thick sheet. The last decade has seen five years with the most losses.

Researchers have compared satellite data with regional climate models. Greece and GRAC-FO are the two satellite missions that play a key role in the observation of ice sheets.

The record melt would probably raise global sea levels by 1.5 millimeters, enough to submerge the entire state of California in more than 4 feet of water, Suggested suggestions. Alex Gardner, a researcher, and co-author of the study at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, said, What I find interesting is the high variability in the loss rate of Greenland ice sheets.

The melting of Greenland’s ice is a major concern among scientists – if it were to melt completely, it would raise global sea levels by at least 20 feet. The previous record for one year of ice melting was 444 billion metric tons in 2012. Melting in Greenland last year added .06 inches to the rise in world sea level. Alex

Gardner, co-author of the study, a NASA ice scientist, called the amount huge and wonderful.

Scientists have concluded that climate-related changes in weather patterns are a major cause of large losses of ice sheets. According to Ingo Sassgen, a glycologist at the Alfred Wegner Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, who led the
study, More and more often, we have stable atmospheric high-pressure systems above the ice sheets, which support the arrival of warm air from mid-latitudes, one of the conditions to stimulate the throat. The island has lost significant ice
mass.

After two years of breathing, the massive damage in 1997 increased very rapidly, and 194 has surpassed all annual losses since 1947 and probably for more than 100 years, Sasgen said in a press release. Above the ice sheet, there is a growing, stable high-pressure region that encourages the arrival of warm air from mid-latitudes. We have seen a similar pattern in previous records.

Scientists say unusually low snow melts were observed in 2017 and 2018 due to winter summers and heavy snowfall, but 2019 data show a return to extremely high melting rates.