"Data from the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) shows that Greenland ice melt slowed significantly during the past decade, and that the trend has now swung to one of growth — media tizzies of ‘mass ice loss’ are wildly unfounded.
The Greenland ice sheet has been faring increasingly well in recent years.
Since 2016, a sharp uptick in the Surface Mass Balance (SMB) –a calculation used to determine the ‘health’ of a glacier– has been detected, and daily/monthly records have routinely been broken.
Decades of reliable satellite measurements have allowed trends to be detected, and while it is true that the world’s largest island lost mass from around 1995 to 2012,
that trend of loss has now reversed, and like the gradual turning of a vast ship, from 2010 to 2015 Greenland’s SMB changed course and has been on an upward trajectory ever since.
Most recently, 2021/2022 is continuing that trend of growth, and impressive totals have been posted across the Greenland ice sheet all season.
None more so, however, than yesterday’s 10 Gigatons gain which, it turns out, is a new record for the time of year:
The entire season’s SMB has now nudged above the 1981-2010 mean, meaning Greenland is on course to log yet another above average season–something that’s become a routine occurrence since 2016.
Starting in 2016-2017, Greenland has consistently posted above average SMB gains (excluding the 2018-2019 season). "
All related charts:
