Satellites reveal sudden melting of Greenland

NASA claims that an exceptionally large area of ​​Greenland's surface ice sheet melted during this month, […]

NASA claims that an exceptionally large area of ​​Greenland's surface ice sheet melted during this month, based on satellite observations.

The entire Greenland ice sheet, which is 3 kilometers thick from the edge to the surface to its center, will have suffered some level of thaw, stresses the Meteorology Institute, citing data from that North American body.

Also according to NASA, the defrost area it went from 40% of the surface ice layer to 97% in just four days, with the melting also taking place in the highest and coldest points of Greenland.

While about half of Greenland's surface ice sheet is typically seen melting during the summer months, the speed and scale of this year's melt has surprised scientists, who describe this phenomenon as "extraordinary."

Until now, the most extensive area of ​​melt recorded by satellites in this region, in the last three decades, was about 55% of the total area.

According to Summit station records, there hasn't been such a pronounced thaw this season since 1889.

Waleed Abdalati, NASA's chief scientist, said that this widespread melting in Greenland has happened before (1889), scientists cannot determine, for now, whether it is a natural event, albeit rare, or if it was triggered by climate change. man-made.

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