A gigantic frozen lake winds between the Greenland mountains blanketed in snow. The European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are using satellites to observe this ice sheet and have noticed a change between 2010 to 2023.
Scientists have used satellites CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 to measure how the density of the Greenland Ice Sheet has changed over the past 13 years. CryoSat-2 was launched April 8th, 2010, to determine if global warming was the cause of artic ice thinning. ICESat-2 was launched September 18th, 2018, and orbits around Earth, using 10,000 laser pulses per second to measure the elevation of ice sheets and glaciers.
The Greenland Ice Sheet has thinned by about 1.2 metres in the middle, and 6.4 meters along the edges. This means it has shrunk by 2,347 cubic kilometres. Due to the scorching summer temperatures, 400 cubic kilometres were lost each year between 2012 and 2019.
Ice thinning at such a rapid rate is very dangerous for the world’s oceans. Over 99% of Earth’s freshwater ice belongs to the Greenlandic and Antarctic Ice Sheets. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sea levels could rise by 148-272 millimetres if the melting continues at its current rate.
Laurie Menviel and Gabriel Pontes, post-doctoral research fellows at the Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, conducted a study on the weakening ocean circulation. They found it is due to the Greenland ice sheet meltwaters – formed by the melting snow and ice. “This fresh meltwater flowing into the subarctic ocean is lighter than salty seawater. So less water descends to the ocean depths,” said Menviel and Pontes in their November 2024 article.
ESA and NASA believe their recent collaboration can prove as an incredibly useful step to prevent any catastrophic consequences, as a result of the melting ice sheets.
“This collaboration represents an exciting step forward, not just in terms of technology but in how we can better serve scientists and policymakers who rely on our data to understand and mitigate climate impacts,” says Tommaso Parrinello, a Manager of the CyroSat mission.