Dog team rushes on the water: photos from Greenland

Every year in June, just before the whole melting sea ice, climate scientists from the Danish meteorological Institute go Dogsledding in Greenland sea-ice. Usually dogs running directly on the ice, but warming this year dogs were running ankle-deep in water!

The photo was taken on June 13, climate scientist Steffen Olsen. He noted that the ice thickness was about 1.2 m — dogs were running on the ice shield, and sea ice surface flooded by meltwater. The picture was taken in the middle of Inglefield of Bregninge, fjord in Northwest Greenland.

According to climatologist Ruth Mottram, this year's expedition by dog sled (the most practical way to travel in the region at this time of year) was faced with a large amount of standing water on sea ice. The ice is formed every winter and it is very thick, which means that there are relatively few cracks to drain the melt water. Last week in Greenland and much of the observed Arctic warming caused by warmer air moving up from the South. This caused the melting of the ice and the appearance of water on the surface — although such phenomena are not uncommon, they usually occur only in late summer.

According to Mottram too early to talk about the role of global warming in this case. However, climate model scientists of the Institute predict that there will be a reduction of the length of the ice season in Greenland, but how fast and how much — depends on the rate of global temperature rise.

According to Olsen, he was overwhelmed by the public response after publishing the photo. According to him, the photos for many carries a symbolic, not a scientific value — and he is inclined to agree with this vision.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»