Sweden’s glaciers are melting away

View over mountains in Kebnekaise National Park in Sweden. (iStock)
View over mountains in Kebnekaise National Park in Sweden. (iStock)
New areal images show glaciers along Sweden’s eastern border are shrinking with some melting at a surprising clip.

Björn Olander, a mapping engineer at the Swedish Land Survey said glaciers from central Jämtland county to the nation’s far north have retreated according to the latest images.

When compared with areal photographs from 2008, images collected in 2014 from airborne lasers scanning the ground show some glaciers have melted between 60 to 80 meters.

“Rabot’s glacier near Kebnekaise (Sweden’s highest peak) has shrunk about 80 meters,” Olander said, noting that the Rágujiekna glacier, which previously spanned the border between Norway and Sweden, has completely disappeared from the Swedish side.

Olander said he was surprised by the rate at which some glaciers had shrunk. He said the agency updates its areal photographs of Sweden’s mountains somewhere between every sixth or tenth year.

Related stories from around the North:

Canada: Climate change does ‘weird things’ to Canada’s Arctic glaciers: expert, Alaska Dispatch News

Finland: Winds challenging Finland’s icebreakers despite record low Baltic ice, Yle News

Greenland: Can we still avert irreversible ice sheet melt?, Deutsche Welle’s Ice-Blog

Norway:  January sea ice extent at record low in Barents and Kara seas, The Independent Barents Observer

Russia: 2016, warmest year on record in Russian Arctic, The Independent Barents Observer

Sweden:  How will global warming affect the average Swede?, Radio Sweden

United States: Eklutna Glacier, source of Anchorage’s water, is dripping away — but oh so slowly, Alaska Dispatch News

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One thought on “Sweden’s glaciers are melting away

  • Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 09:53
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    Where are all the photos of melting glaciers?

    Reply
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