Study offers new insights into Greenland’s rapid warming
A study published this week is offering fresh insights into why Greenland is warming so rapidly compared to the rest of the world.
The researchers say that unlike earlier research that focused mainly on general warming trends, the new study suggests it’s the annual fluctuations and their specific weather patterns that are crucial to understanding Greenland’s rapid temperature changes.
“In this study, we focused on the year-to-year perturbations of the surface energy budget to explain Greenland’s extreme temperature,” Kyung-Ja Ha, one of the study’s lead authors and a professor at Pusan National University in South Korea, said in a statement.
To do the study, the researchers examined temperature changes in Greenland from 1979 to 2021.
Heat trapping a main driver
One key factor in the warming they discovered is that on clear days, more heat is being directed from the atmosphere to the ground. This trapped heat contributes significantly to the warming of the region.
Additionally, during warmer years, there is more heat exchange between the atmosphere and the ground. This means that the warm air and surface temperatures interact more intensely, which further boosts the warming effect.
The study also looked at natural climate changes, focusing on something called the Greenland blocking index, a measure of strong high-pressure systems over Greenland that can trap warm air, which speeds up ice melting and causes temperatures to rise even more.
The findings are part of a broader pattern called Arctic Amplification, where the Arctic warms faster than other regions of the world.
The loss of sea ice contributes to this increasing warming, as it decreases the Earth’s ability to reflect sunlight and instead leads to more heat being absorbed.
Global implications
The new research highlights how year-to-year temperature changes and specific weather patterns in Greenland contribute to this broader trend, offering a clearer picture of the complex processes behind the rapid warming, the researchers said.
“The results suggest a significant impact of natural variability in explaining the atmospheric anomalies leading to extreme summers over Greenland,” Ha said.
“Considering climate change, the extreme summer temperature over Greenland will further accelerate the ice sheet melting, leading to a rapid sea level rise.”
As the warming environment continues to reshape the Arctic, impacting everything from sea levels to coastlines and ecosystems, Ha said the study’s findings can help the global community better understand the patterns driving Greenland’s extreme temperature swings and inform strategies to slow the continued melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
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Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Makivvik launches climate adaptation strategy for Nunavik, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Finland sees “exceptionally warm” July as global temperatures hit record highs, Yle News
Greenland: Alarming, above-average ice loss in Greenland due to rising temperatures, Eye on the Arctic
Norway: Satellite images reveal worrying scale of Svalbard glaciers loss, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: NASA funding Swedish glacier research to understand climate change on Mars, CBC News
United States: Alaska’s North Slope sees record-breaking heat, among state’s other climate oddities, Alaska Public Media
