The question has often crossed my mind, what if the Greenland ice sheet completely melts? The sea level will rise, submerging low-lying countries such as Bangladesh and Netherlands. Such a nightmarish scenario is not straight out of a Hollywood flick. In fact, we may encounter such a future given the alarming loss of Greenland ice. Satellite images have shown that recent warming summers caused record shrinking of Greenland ice in 50 years, claims a research team from the University of Sheffield.
Dr. Edward Hanna, who led the Sheffield team, has found an accelerated pace of melting in the last fifteen years. The study published in the 15 January 2008 issue of Journal of Climate has identified a link between global warming and thawing of Greenland ice. Another study by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California has detected that rate of ice loss between May 2004 and April 2006 has been phenomenal. In recent years, temperature around the margins of Greenland ice sheet is on the rise.
Ice is being lost at a rate of 59 cubic miles a year. This is enough to cause a rise of .5 mm in sea level. If all the ice on Greenland vanishes, scientists predict a rise in global sea levels by 23 feet.
To track the ice loss, scientists resort to data beamed back by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites. The satellites measure changes in Earth’s gravitational pull. Liquid water being denser than ice has a stronger gravitational pull. As rise in temperature causes major ice sheets to melt, the amount of liquid water increases. This translates into changes in gravitational pull, which tracked by GRACE linking ice loss with global warming.
Apart from Greenland ice, the arctic sea ice is also shrinking. The ice on earth reflects solar radiation during springtime and summer. With no large ice masses especially at the poles fuels further warming. Given the present rate of ice loss, by 2050, we may not find any ice during summer months.
