June 8, 2010
Graph of the Day: Net Cumulative Area of 34 Greenland Glaciers, 2000-2009
Our 2009 area change survey of 34 of the widest Greenland marine-terminating glacier outlets from the inland ice sheet is complete. We find a net marine-terminating ice area loss of 109 sq km. The total net cumulative area change from year 2000 (when our survey begins) to 2009 is -990.2 sq. km, a loss equivalent with an area more than 11 times the area of Manhattan Is. (87.5 sq. km) in New York, USA. The marine-terminating ice area change for these glaciers is -106 sq. km per year, the 2009 loss being within 3% of the linear fit. In other words, and as you can see below, the loss rate has been nearly constant. Though, on a glacier by glacier basis, the loss rate is not constant. …
