THIS extraordinary photograph was taken by climate scientist Steffen Olsen of the Danish Meteorological Institute on 13 June. With the help of local hunters, his team was retrieving instruments from the sea ice in Inglefield Fjord in Greenland.
The dogs are running on sea ice that is still 1.2 metres thick. Sudden warming caused the surface to melt and form a shallow layer of water on top of the ice below.
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鈥淭he photo documents an unusual day. I learn now that it is even more symbolic than scientific to many. Tend to agree,鈥� Olsen tweeted after the image went viral online.
This June has seen temperatures more than 20掳C above normal in Greenland, leading to extensive surface melting across large areas of the ice sheet on the vast island as well as of the sea ice around it. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in the US, more than 40 per cent of the ice sheet鈥檚 surface was melting at one point, which is the highest level recorded at this time of year.
The highest level of surface melt at any time of the year was in July 2012, when 97 per cent of the ice sheet was melting. Greenland鈥檚 ice sheet, which is more than 3 kilometres thick in places, holds enough water to raise global sea level by 7 metres. According to a 2012 study, all this ice will melt if the world keeps warming.
The loss of more sea ice each summer, by contrast, doesn鈥檛 raise sea level. But it gets replaced with dark water that reflects less sunlight, which results in yet more warming 鈥� a feedback loop that adds to the temperature rise across the Arctic.
There is growing evidence that Arctic warming is leading to more extreme weather across the northern hemisphere, by altering the behaviour of high level winds known as the jet stream.
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