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Greenland, that big island off Canada, is supposed to be the principal place where ice will melt and result in catastrophic sea level rise. The IPCC has a number of 59cm, er, no 1m, er no.. some other number without any change in the science... make up something quick untill people are scared... by 2100. The sea is stuborn though and is doing a steady 3mm/yr at most. So less than a foot by 2100.
Thing is Greenland is gaining ice.
Greenland has a high snowfall on it 540mm/yr. Greenland Average Precipitation | 1901-2015 Data | 2019-2020 Forecast | Historical or for more detail https://www.cambridge.org/core/serv...ation_and_accumulation_maps_for_greenland.pdf
The area of Greenland is 2.2 million square km. So the total snow, and a very small amount of rain, that falls on it is between 1100 to 1200Gt. That is 1100 to 1200 cubic kilometers of water equivalent.
The amount of water and ice leaving the place is said to be 260Gt/yr. I think this figure has been stretched up a bit at that.
Direct measurements of meltwater runoff on the Greenland ice sheet surface | PNAS
So that is 1150 (say) in and 260 out. I'd call that obviously gaining ice mass. But then NASA with its' GRACE satellite system where they measure the ice mass of Greenland by seeing how those passing satellites are perturbed in their course due to the gravity of the ice. About as sensable a way of measuring the ice mass on Greenland as measuring the height of your son by using the camera footage of passing police cars.
I cannot see how NASA cannot be doing anything other than directly lying.
I understand the problem they face; if they say that Greenland is gaining ice then all the doom predictions of sea level rise will fly out of the window. They will lose the billions of dolars they get for all that global warming stuff they do. That is billions of dollars of pressure. So understandable.
Thing is Greenland is gaining ice.
Greenland has a high snowfall on it 540mm/yr. Greenland Average Precipitation | 1901-2015 Data | 2019-2020 Forecast | Historical or for more detail https://www.cambridge.org/core/serv...ation_and_accumulation_maps_for_greenland.pdf
The area of Greenland is 2.2 million square km. So the total snow, and a very small amount of rain, that falls on it is between 1100 to 1200Gt. That is 1100 to 1200 cubic kilometers of water equivalent.
The amount of water and ice leaving the place is said to be 260Gt/yr. I think this figure has been stretched up a bit at that.
Direct measurements of meltwater runoff on the Greenland ice sheet surface | PNAS
The production and transport of meltwater (runoff) is an important hydrological process operating on the surface of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS). Total GrIS mass loss from runoff and solid ice dynamics (glacier calving) now exceeds ∼260 Gt/y, contributing >0.7 mm annually to global mean sea level rise (1⇓–3)
So that is 1150 (say) in and 260 out. I'd call that obviously gaining ice mass. But then NASA with its' GRACE satellite system where they measure the ice mass of Greenland by seeing how those passing satellites are perturbed in their course due to the gravity of the ice. About as sensable a way of measuring the ice mass on Greenland as measuring the height of your son by using the camera footage of passing police cars.
I cannot see how NASA cannot be doing anything other than directly lying.
I understand the problem they face; if they say that Greenland is gaining ice then all the doom predictions of sea level rise will fly out of the window. They will lose the billions of dolars they get for all that global warming stuff they do. That is billions of dollars of pressure. So understandable.