Snow Loss Seen At Greenland Research Camp Repeating Itself Across Island - Revkin/NYT

[hatrack]

Ed. - sorry, but you'll need to link to the page for the photographs.

Here are photographs showing the rapid pace at which Greenland’s ice sheet is eroding. Changes at one latitude-longitude point over five years do not constitute climate change, but researchers say the same pattern, with some variation south to north, is spread over the entire ice sheet, which is four times the size of California.

I took the top photograph in 2004, when I was fortunate to be able to travel to Greenland to chronicle research aimed at clarifying the “ icy riddle” of how much melting could accelerate in a warming world. What you see here is “ Swiss Camp,” an important science hub built in 1991 by the Swiss-born glaciologist Konrad Steffen on the western flank of the vast ice sheet. The camp consists of a trio of red tents, a wooden sauna, clusters of instruments and other gear (including a bread machine). Dr. Steffen, recently back from the field there, mentioned on Wednesday that the melting rate in summers in most years since my trip had far outpaced the rate of snow accumulation. The result is that the tents, which were nearly buried in ice and snow when I visited, are now so exposed that they’ll have to be repositioned by next year.

EDIT

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/melting-undermines-greenland-camp/