Snowline retreat southwest Greenland

In the summer of 2021, unusually warm atmospheric rivers swept along Greenland, bringing potent melt conditions when the melt season was drawing to a close. Although this heatwave was followed by never-before-seen rainfall, it was the heat that led to a major melt. Researchers found that this melt, for example, caused the ice sheet in southwest Greenland to retreat by more than 500 metres in altitude and by 50 km in horizontal distance.

The map is based on observations from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission between 11 August and 20 August 2021.

Click here to see the full Greenland image.

Read full story: Historic Greenland ice sheet rainfall unravelled