Rainfall recorded at highest point of Greenland's ice sheet for first time, signals climate change
The rain was detected for many hours on August 14 at a measuring post more than 3,000 metres (9,800 feet) above the sheet, according to the US Snow and Ice Data Center.
FollowRain poured at Greenland's highest point – potentially for the first time – in an occurrence that Danish scientists claimed was most likely caused by climate change on Monday. The rain was detected for many hours on August 14 at a measuring post more than 3,000 metres (9,800 feet) above the sheet, according to the US Snow and Ice Data Center. Temperatures must be at or just slightly below zero degrees Celsius for the rain to fall, indicating the threat that increasing temperatures pose to the world's second-largest ice sheet after Antarctica.
According to media reports, Martin Stendel, a researcher at Danish Meteorological Institute, said there is an extreme event as it may never have happened before, and it's probable that this is a sign of global warming. He said that temperatures have risen above freezing at the peak of the sheet only nine times in the past 2,000 years.
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The rain comes after a summer of record-breaking temperatures in northern Greenland of more than 20 degrees. The melting of the ice sheet has accelerated due to the recent heatwave.
Its decline, which had begun many decades before, began to accelerate in 1990. With a surface area more than three times France's, Greenland's ice sheet traps enough water to increase global sea levels by up to seven metres. Scientists are concerned about the melting since the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world.
According to a January European research, melting the Greenland ice sheet is anticipated to contribute to an overall rise in sea levels of 10 to 18 cm by 2100, 60 per cent quicker than the previous projection.
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