I am Terrible years for Greenland (and throughout the planet) which continues to lose ice due to the global warming: now, a search guided by University of Colorado Boulder (USA) and supported by the use of dronesfor the first time it also measured detailed data of the water vapor at high altitude on the surface of the glacial cap in the territory. And no, there is no good news
We will be able to understand how the water enters and leaves Greenland in the coming years – explains Kevin Rozmiarek, the first author of the work – as an important fresh water reserve, we must understand how the environment of Greenland will change in the future
What is happening in Greenland
According to reports from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa)Greenland has lost about 55 gigatonnellate of ice and snow between the autumn of 2023 and the autumn of 2024 (data Ice-2) And so it is confirmed that the island is losing ice for the 28th consecutive year, with a total withdrawal of Over 5 trillions of ice tons since 1992.
The glacial cap of Greenland contains about 8% of the planet’s fresh water and its dissolution water could contribute significantly to theSea level raisingmodifying ocean circulation and ecosystems all over the world.
Most of the ice loss derives from large pieces of ice that detach themselves from the glaciers and the dissolution of the ice and the snow on the surface. But also the sublimationthe process of transformation of gas solids without first transforming into liquids, could play a role.
A study of 2021 He had suggested that in some parts of Greenland about 30% of the summer snow on the surface could sublimate in water vapor. But the suspicion that in general this phenomenon could play an important role had been presented already back in 2001.
It is not clear yet clear where the water vapor goes, the experts explain: a part could fall in the form of snow or return to the surface later, but a part could completely abandon the Greenland water system.
How the study was conducted
Collecting air samples in the Arctic is an expensive and technically demanding task, because it traditionally involves the flight of a plane to the center of a glacial cap in adverse weather conditions and the transport of air samples in the laboratory.
The researchers have now overcome challenges by loading the air sampling equipment on a big drone with a wing opening of over 3 meters.
During the summer of 2022, the team made the drone fly 104 times in the hinterland of the island starting from the field of the project East Greenland Ice-Coreled byUniversity of Copenhagen (Denmark), thus collecting air samples at different heights up to almost 1,500 meters above the ground.
The analyzes
The researchers examined the type of hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the water vapor of the air, in particular theirs isotopesthat is, the forms of hydrogen and oxygen that diversify only for their weight (due to a different number of neutrons in the nucleus).
Isotopes are the fingerprints of water – continues Rozmiarek – following these fingerprints, we can trace back to the source from which the water vapor comes
For this reason, the authors collected high quality data on the water source in Greenland, including the one that flows from the tropics and the well, the superficial snow on the glacial cap of the large Arctic island.
But we don’t know much about Isotopian composition of moving waterthat is, of the steam between the source and the well
The results obtained so far
When the team compared its measurements based on drones with an existing computer simulation that model the water cycle in the Arctic, discovered that the first he underestimated the amount of rainfall fallen on Greenland. By incorporating the isotopic data observed in the simulation, the model provided one accurate forecast how water moves on Greenland.
It is really important to be able to predict what will happen to Greenland in the world that heats up in the most accurate way possible (…) is as if we had just understood how to discover the fingerprints on the scene of a crime. This is a concrete step forward In understanding where the water goes and where it comes from in this important system at a time when we need more
The work was published on Jgr atmospheres.
Sources: University of Colorado Boulder / Jgr Atmospheres
