A Monumental Storm Dropped 16 Billion Tons of Snow on Greenland, Slowing Melt of Ice Sheet

Greenland’s ice sheet is the second-largest ice cap on Earth, and because of the planet’s rising temperatures, it’s melting. Human-induced climate change is intensifying atmospheric rivers, but new research suggests their impact on Greenland’s ice sheet is more complex than once thought. A research pair has investigated the recent impact of an intense atmospheric river—a channel of water vapor that brings moisture and heat from warmer oceans to colder regions—on Greenland’s ice sheet. Unexpectedly, they found that this phenomenon deposited 16 billion tons of snow on Greenland, enough to temporarily slow its ice melt. As detailed in a study published March 3 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, atmospheric rivers might have a more positive impact than researchers had theorized. “I was surprised by just how much snow was dumped on the ice sheet over such a short period…but it’s a gobsmacking contribution to Greenland’s annual ice mass.” “I was surprised by just how much snow w ... Read full article.