Study: greenland ice sheet melting six times faster than in 1980

the ice sheet in Greenland melted almost six times faster in 2018 than it did in the beginning of the 1980s.

It is the conclusion of a new international research project has calculated the amount of ice melted in Greenland since 1972. In the same year as the first of the Landsat satellites began to take pictures of the Danish territory.

the Project was Monday published in the scientific journal PNAS.

the Researchers behind, among other things, includes the researchers from Copenhagen University believe at the same time to be able to demonstrate that meltwater from the greenland ice sheet alone has contributed to the world's oceans has increased by 13.7 millimeters since 1972.

- When looking at the development over several decades, so it is best if you just sit down, before reviewing the results. It is scary, so quickly it is changing, says the French glaciolog Eric Rignot, who contributed to the report, told AFP.

It is the advanced satellite measurements, which have made it possible for researchers from universities in California, Grenoble, Utrecht and Copenhagen to recreate ispladerne from the 1970s and 1980s, where the data up to now has been inadequate.

From the University of Copenhagen has, among other postdoc Anders Anker Bjørk contributed.

Measurements show that the greenland ice cap in the 1970s accumulated 47 gigatons - or 47 billion tonnes of ice per year on average.

In the 1980s began smelteraten to rise to double before the end of the 1990's and early 2000's began to accelerate violently.

the Study comes after a similar research project has found similar results on the antarctic ice sheet.

There exists scientific consensus that man-made climate change contributes to the higher smelterater in the Arctic.