Marco Tedesco, a Columbia University climate scientist, said that he started hearing a noise like coins breaking or breaking. His loud, continuous crunching sound is a replay of what he and his colleagues heard years ago while fieldwork was being done on the Greenland Ice Sheet. A flood was already taking place below the ice surface near their location. Tedesco describes the phenomenon as "a flood". The water below begins to move, but there is still snow on top. The flowing water begins to gain momentum and snow and ice overlying it give way, revealing a meltwater stream.
Tedesco refers to a small-scale, seasonal melt event that occurs every summer at the Greenland Ice Sheet's lower-elevation edges. This area covers more than 650,000 miles and is second only to Antarctic Ice Sheet in terms of size. However, this year was different.
After a heatwave in mid-August that caused torrential rain at Summit Camp, the highest point on the ice sheets, torrents of melting water rushed across the surface. Climatologists measured daily melt rates seven-fold higher than the normal. The satellite image of the southwestern corner is shown above. It was taken on August 21st. Pale blue water forms channels around bright white ice islands or collects in slushy depressions. The left side is darker, and it's a warning sign of what lies ahead, much like the storm clouds that are visible on the horizon. Like the rest of Arctic, the Greenland Ice Sheet is caught in a feedback loop. As more ice melts it creates conditions that allow for more extreme melting events.
The summer melt is growing in size.
Mark Serreze is the director of National Snow and Ice Data Center. He says that the Arctic is losing its soul. According to Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the Arctic is losing its soul.
Edward Hanna, University of Lincoln climate scientist, says that the dramatic scene of surface meltwater in the image is likely to be repeated as Greenland is reaching a critical tipping point caused by climate change.
Serreze has been studying Greenland since 1982 and is familiar with the Arctic. He says that we knew the Arctic would be the first to raise red flags. It's still shocking. He is stunned to see a rainstorm at the Greenland Ice Sheet.
As shown in this 2017 photo, melting water from the edges of the glacier carves channels on its journey to the ocean each summer. This process has been happening for many decades. Martin Zwick/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Tedesco, author of The Hidden Life of Ice. Dispatches From a Disappearing World: Dispatches from an Unknown World: Tedesco sees opportunity in the Summit Camp rain event as well as the spectacular satellite image taken the week after.
Tedesco says that it was important to have an unprecedented rainfall event. This is what I consider a sign that such things can occur. Tedesco and his colleagues know this for many years, so the Summit Camp rain might help to bring it out of the shadows. Tedesco says these events are closely connected to the changes that were imposed on the planet. He calls Earth a thermodynamic, delicate, but powerful, system.
Tedesco claims that satellite images are of exceptional quality and that you can see the entire story. There is likely to be a lot of meltwater ponding right on the right.
Researchers studying the Greenland Ice Sheet observed that meltwater streams and rivers form along its lower elevation edges during summer months. However, the intensity of this activity is growing. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Tedesco states that the satellite image's left side is located near Greenlands west coast. It has been colored by dust, rock, and other particles, as well bacteria and other microorganisms. The phenomenon of ice-albedo feedback, which causes it to melt faster, makes it darker.
Serreze explains that albedo can be used to describe how reflective a surface is. The reflective nature of ice and snow melts means that the surface with a darker color, whether it is exposedrock, openwater, or older ice, absorbs more sun energy, which in turn causes more intense melting. He says that the Arctic was experiencing this as they were losing their sea ice and snow covers.
The immense Greenland Ice Sheet, which is larger than Antarcticas in terms of size, is currently experiencing unprecedented stress. Mario Tama/Getty Images.
However, there is an unanticipated wrinkle in the darker section of the satellite image. Tedesco studied this part of the Ice Sheet; based on the underlying topography, Tedesco and his colleagues believe at least some of what is staining the Ice was originally deposited elsewhere.
This stuff may have been hidden in the ice elsewhere, but it is now visible due to the melting of the ice. He says that the theory remains unstudied. He finds the possibility that ancient material could return to the surface very poignant.
He says that this image is essentially a time machine. He looks at the ripples and swirls of gray, white, and blue on his computer monitor and smiles pensively. On the right you can see the future, which is a patchy, wet and slushy sheet of ice. The middle is the present, which basically represents your ice right now, frozen. You also have the past, which is your ice now, frozen.
