COPENHAGEN, DENMARK – Arctic sea ice is melting faster than climate models predicted, University of Copenhagen researchers warned on Tuesday.
So far, climate models have predicted a slow and steady rise in Arctic temperatures, but a new study shows that warming is occurring at a faster pace.
“We have clearly underestimated the rate of temperature rises in the atmosphere near sea level, which ultimately caused ice to disappear faster than we thought,” said Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen, a professor in Copenhagen and one of the researchers involved in the research, in a statement.
Their findings, published in the journal Nature at the end of July, showed the unusually high temperatures currently observed in the Arctic Ocean only during the previous ice age.
Ice core analyzes have revealed that temperatures over the Greenland ice sheet increased several times during that time, between 10 and 12 degrees, over a period of 40 to 100 years.
“Changes occur so rapidly during the summer months that ice probably disappears faster than most climate models have ever predicted,” said Hesselbjerg Christensen.
In June 2019, a photo of the early ice melt in northwest Greenland made headlines around the world.
It shows sled dogs fighting through five or six inches of meltwater on top of the ice. With a snow-free mountain in the background, the dogs seem to be running on water.
A recent study from the British University of Lincoln concluded that the ice of Greenland alone until 2100 is expected to contribute 10-12 centimeters to the rising sea level of the world.
Another group of researchers recently concluded that the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet has gone so far that it is now irreversible, with snowfall no longer able to compensate for the loss of ice, even if global warming were to end today.
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