Monitoring the effects of climate change in Greenland has been made much easier with an innovative method developed by researchers at DTU using 61 national GPS stations in Greenland.
Monitoring the effects of climate change in Greenland has been made much easier with an innovative method developed by researchers at DTU using 61 national GPS stations in Greenland.
When the ice sheet in Greenland melts, as it has done increasingly in recent years, the bedrock beneath moves slightly.
This occurs because the pressure from the ice above decreases, causing the land beneath to rise. This elevation change can be measured and translated into how much ice disappears from Greenland's ice sheet and how fast it’s happening. Now, researchers at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have developed a method based on this principle, allowing daily tracking of ice melt for the first time.
"This is the first time we can measure the entire mass loss of the ice sheet day by day. For example, satellite gravity measurements show mass loss every month. Other methods only provide a single estimate per year. This means that we have not been able to monitor the sudden changes in ice mass loss that often occur in the summer period," explains senior researcher at DTU Space, Valentina Barletta.
Read more at Technical University of Denmark
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