Cloudy Skies Are Melting Greenland's Ice Sheet

When you think about a cloudy day, you probably think about the cold. After all, when the fluffy clouds are blocking out the sun, you tend to have a colder day. Unfortunately, clouds can have the exact opposite effect, in certain parts of the world, and it could be causing a serious problem.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is the second largest of its kind. It has been rapidly melting, and scientists have been trying to figure out exactly why. Recent research has pointed to clouds as being a major culprit in this melting. While the clouds can reflect heat from the sun away from the earth, it can also act like a warm blanket in the winter, trapping heat beneath it, and bouncing it straight back at the ice sheet.

Using a pair of satellites named CloudSat and CALIPSO, scientists have been able to study the cloud cover of the earth, and determine what role those clouds are playing in regards to the climate. What they found is that in Greenland, the thick cloud cover has contributed to a rise of between 2 and 3 degrees, when compared to sunny days.

While a couple of degrees might not seem like much of a change here in the US, when you're looking at one of the world's largest ice sheets, it can make all the difference. Typically, some of the ice will melt during the day, and re-freeze at night, which allows the sheet to maintain its density. Unfortunately, the thick clouds over the country are preventing all of the melted ice from re-freezing at night, leading to more and more of it to be deposited into the ocean.

While there's nothing we can do about those thick clouds, the data from research such as this can help better prepare us for what sort of changes we can expect in the future.

VIA: PhysOrg