Posted on 8 March 2025 by Sue Bin Park

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Is Greenland losing land ice?

Data from satellites and expeditions confirm Greenland has been losing land ice at an accelerating rate for decades.

Glaciers gain ice via snowfall, while melting and ice breaking off into the ocean account for nearly all of Greenland’s ice-sheet loss. Rates vary season to season and year to year due to weather variation—however, multi-decade trends show ongoing loss.

Satellites launched in the early 1990s measure ice sheet height and gravity to detect changes in mass. They have found that Greenland has lost ice every year since 1998; from 2010 to 2018, average annual ice loss was six times that of the 1990s.

Greenland has lost 5,000 gigatons of ice since 2002. Rising global temperatures of about 2°F (1.1°C) since widespread fossil fuel burning began have driven the melt. Scientists warn that positive feedback loops such as the melting of methane-rich permafrost will further accelerate ice loss.

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Sources

NASA The Anatomy of Glacial Ice Loss

NOAA Arctic Report Card: Update for 2023 - Greenland Ice Sheet

National Academy of Sciences - Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Forty-six years of Greenland Ice Sheet mass balance from 1972 to 2018

UCAR Greenland's Ice Is Melting

World Wildlife Fund Six ways loss of Arctic ice impacts everyone

Carbon Brief How the Greenland ice sheet fared in 2024

CNN Greenland is getting greener. That could have huge consequences for the world