An international team of scientists from Northwestern University (NWU) in Chicago and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark studied the dynamics of melting of Greenland’s coastal ice over the past 20 years. They concluded that the island’s ice cover began to disappear at twice the rate in the 21st century compared to the previous century. The research was published in the official gazette Web site NWU
The team combined satellite images with historic aerial photographs of the Greenland coastline to piece together the extent of ice melt in Greenland. Using this data, experts recorded changes in the length of more than 1,000 glaciers in the region over the past 130 years.
Analysis of the images showed that, on average, glaciers in southern Greenland have lost 18% of their size over the past 20 years, while in other regions ice has shrunk by 5-10% of its former size over the same period.
“Our study looks at the recent decline of surrounding glaciers across Greenland’s different climate zones from a century perspective and suggests that the rate of loss in the 21st century is largely unprecedented on a century scale. The only possible exception is northeastern Greenland, where recent increases in snowfall may slow melting.” “It was the ice in the ice,” said Laura Larocca, lead author of the study.
The study shows that the rapid retreat of glaciers is linked to climate change, and that glaciers in Greenland are rapidly responding to rising temperatures. According to scientists, the melting process of ice can be slowed down by taking precautions against global warming.
Previous researchers Established The reason for the rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which covers 80% of the island.