The world’s top expert says Greenland ice is getting dark and is going to kill us all
The world’s leading expert on the ice that covers the huge expanse of Greenland has told The Independent that he was “stunned” to see how much darker it has become in the past year – warning it could start a hugely damaging “cascading feedback loop” of the area becoming blacker as less and less light is reflected.
Greenland’s dark snow may start global warming ‘feedback loop’ – Environment – The Independent
All this super deadly darkening of the snow caused below normal melt this summer.
Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Mass Budget: DMI
The current darkness of the ice sheet is simply blinding
Ummm Dr. Box? If you look at your computer monitor you will see little buttons labeled “Contrast” and “Brightness.” If newly fallen bright white snow appears “dark” you may wish to push the ^ button next to “Contrast” until white looks like white again.
ROTFLMAO….
+1
We suggest that the transport of dust from snow-free areas in the Arctic that are experiencing earlier melting of seasonal snow cover4 as the climate warms may be a contributing source of impurities. In our snow model simulations, a decrease in the albedo of fresh snow by 0.01 leads to a surface mass loss of 27 Gt yr−1, which could induce an acceleration of Greenland’s mass loss twice as large as over the past two decades5. Future trends in light-absorbing impurities should therefore be considered in projections of Greenland mass loss.
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v7/n7/full/ngeo2180.html
The mid-summer melt surface in this area is pocked with 0.5 to 1 meter-wide (1.5 to 3 feet-wide) potholes with black grit and dust collected at the bottom. This black material is called cryoconite, and is comprised of dust and soot deposited on the surface, and melted out from the older ice exposed by melting. The dark patches are often glued together by tiny microbes.
http://darksnowproject.org/
Greenland’s surface gained 3GT of ice this past year.
That’s was easy! 🙂
The also forgot all the Russian and Canadian forest fires with smoke that blew over the arctic. (Not an unusual problem)
“In our snow model simulations… 😆
“We suggest that” ☺
…”may be” ☺☺☺
Science is NOT simulations…that’s ‘virtual reality’ and fiction.
Doesn’t seem to very much reality (virtual or otherwise) where globull warming (or climate change, or whatever they’re calling it this week) is concerned. 😉
” …and melted out from the older ice exposed by melting”
How did it ever freeze in the first place with all of that world destroying black grit?
Stop the darkening!
Grimsvötn: “Sorry I made such a mess and fertilized the algae & related microbes.”
Bárðarbunga:”Aw shucks. Does this mean we have to stop making messes?”
http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/formal/icecore/Icelandic_Volcanoes_and_the_Greenland_Ice_Sheet_Connection.pdf
http://www.iceandclimate.nbi.ku.dk/research/past_atmos/ice_core_impurities/impurities_volcanic_origin/
http://www.vulkaner.no/v/volcan/island/pics/grims-2004-11-05a.jpg
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQLwoaGTy8S5UjIjVIZ-yxjy5gdW6VdQn1hZP7IonM–qycllkt
http://i.guim.co.uk/w-460/h–/q-95/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/6/7/1307479866642/Grimsvotn-volcano-eruptio-007.jpgjpg
Centuries worth of that ash (black sand) eventually makes its way to the margins of Vatnajökull and piles up in a thick layer on top of the ice at the melting edge of the ice cap in various places.
Dr. Box is in a simulation box.
Ah, may and could once again.
Why aren’t there any readings before 1980?
Is it just one more thing that begins in 1979?
Or do they not want anyone to know what the albedo of the ice was BEFORE the Clean Air Act really started to have some impact?