Greenland Sees Significant Snowfall, Ice Mass Loss Slows Over the Last Decade, Danish Data Show – Is It Up Because of That?
Via P Gosselin above November 14, 2021
Data from the Danish Polar Portal shows that the melting of ice in Greenland is slowing down significantly over the past 10 years. The rapidly increasing mass loss is a myth.
German climate website Die kalte Sonne here See if Greenland is actually melting faster in the 78th climate and energy video (3rd segment).
Satellite measurement has allowed precise measurements for many years and thus can reliably detect trends.
Greenland has been mass replenishing since July
Over the past year, as of September 2020, Greenland has seen several heavy snowfalls, depicted by the solid blue line in the graph by Denmark’s polarportal.dk:
Cropped image: Die kalte Sonne.
When looking at net profit in billions of tons, we see net gain since July (blue curve):
Cropped image: Die kalte Sonne.
The past few months are in stark contrast to the massive net loss in 2012, depicted by the red curve.
Despite the recent net gain of 30 billion tons starting in July, that hasn’t stopped media outlets like Der Spiegel from the publication of a doomsday warning about melting ice.
Greenland’s mass loss rate has dropped dramatically
Another important aspect of Greenland ice mass variation is the data measurements of ice margins and calving rates, in addition to variations in surface mass. Each year the Danish Polar Portal reports a combination of these two factors. “This determines whether the ice in Greenland is growing or shrinking,” said Die kalte Sonne.
The following chart shows the change in total equilibrium mass since 1985:
Cropped image: Die kalte Sonne.
Greenland’s ice mass change bottomed out in 2012, and has been losing less and less over the past 15 years. Every year the mass loss has decreased.
Currently, the mass balance shift in Greenland is at levels seen in 2000. The days of rapid mass loss are behind us, at least for now. 2021 is expected to be at -100 gigatonnes. In 2017 and 2018 the actual volume was added.
False reporting in the media
When it comes to the Greenland ice sheet, Die kalte Sonne summary: “The usual media coverage of an accelerating ice melt in Greenland is not true.”
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