NASA Says Greenland Snow Melt Increasing

NASA scientists say 2006 satellite data indicate Greenland experienced more days of melting snow, and at higher altitudes, than average.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says its daily satellite observations have shown snow melting on Greenland’s ice sheet over an increased number of days. The data will help scientists understand better the speed of glacier flow, how much water will pour from the ice sheet into the surrounding ocean, and how much of the sun’s radiation will reflect back into the atmosphere, NASA said.

We now have the ability to monitor melting snow on Greenland’s ice sheet on a daily basis using sensors on satellites measuring the electromagnetic signal naturally emitted by the ice sheet, said Marco Tedesco, research scientist at the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The sensors detected that snowmelt occurred more than 10 days longer than the average over certain areas of Greenland in 2006, said Tedesco.

The study appears in the current issue of the journal Eos.