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Journalism of Courage
A massive ice sheet in Greenland has melted this month over an unusually larger area,which was detected after analysing radar data from the Indian Space Research Organisations (ISRO) Oceansat-2 satellite.
The unprecedented melting,which occurred even at Greenlands coldest and highest place,Summit Station,is the most severe in three decades of satellite observation,NASA said in a statement.
The thawed ice area jumped from 40 per cent of the ice sheet to 97 per cent in just four days from July 8 to 12.
Although half of Greenlands ice sheet normally melts over the summer,the speed and scale of this years melting surprised scientists,who described the phenomenon as extraordinary Son Nghiem of NASA was analysing radar data from the ISRO satellite last week when he noticed that most of Greenland appeared to have undergone surface melting on July 12. This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: was this real or was it due to a data error? Nghiem said.
Nasa said that nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland,from its thin,low-lying coastal edges to its centre,which is 3 km thick,experienced some degree of melting at its surface.
Tom Wagner,NASAs cryosphere program manager,said because this Greenland-wide melting has happened before,Nasa is not yet able to determine whether this is a natural but rare event,or if it has been sparked by man-made global warming. Scientists said they believed that much of Greenlands ice was already freezing again.
Ice last melted at Summit Atation in 1889,ice core records show.
