Whilst CosmicRay looks at the future of the Greenland Ice Sheet, decades of research help us understand the ice sheet's past and present, monitoring and measuring several parts of the largest northern ice sheet. Even with this knowledge, there is still a lot for us to figure out and uncover.

The ice sheet is melting rapidly, predominantly due to global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, but how has this been shown through data?

Glacial Loss

This data has helped us track the general impact of climate change on the ice and the subsequent changes in mass. For example, Greenland is covered with glaciers - slow-moving rivers of ice - making up 21% of the total ice loss, so their health is one critical aspect of the ice sheet.

With glaciers being at a low altitude, this means that they are exposed to warmer air, so the impact of climate change and greenhouse gases is highly prevalent.

To best understand this component of Greenland, NASA set up monitoring satellites, keeping track of 207 glaciers and recording their behaviour.

Here is what they found:

Description	Number
Total Number of Glaciers	207
Retreated Significantly	179
Held Steady	27
Advanced Slightly	1

(Data Credit: NASA)

These results have shown that the majority of the glaciers have retreated significantly, experiencing significant losses as a result of global warming.

As well as adding to the total ice loss, this poses a massive issue to the wildlife, such as the polar bears and foxes, as this only increases the amount of habitat they have lost, particularly since they live around the coastal areas of the ice sheet.

Glacial retreat is not a standalone issue, it is following the trend of the entire sheet suffering from ice loss.

How Much Of The Ice Sheet Is Melting?

As well as mass data, estimates on the extent of surface melting, or the amount of ice melting on a given day is being monitored by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) satellites, providing up-to-date data on how much of the ice sheet has been melting daily.

This data enables us to visualise the increase in melting area that has occurred due to global warming. So far this year, the melt percentage has reached peaks that exceed historical averages, showing that when temperatures increase, the ice feels a dramatic change.

Paragraph(Data Credit: NSIDC / Thomas Mote, University of Georgia)

This data shows a worryingly high trend for this year, specifically with an earlier peak in May and June. However, despite all this data, we face several difficulties in collecting data from parts of the ice sheet, meaning it is difficult to get the whole picture.

What We Don’t Know: Inside The Ice Sheet

Even with our current satellites and monitoring stations, there exists one part of Greenland that remains somewhat misunderstood: under the surface of the ice sheet.

The majority of Greenland's monitoring stations are situated on the edges of the ice sheet. Manual monitoring has historically been used in higher altitude regions, meaning that there is no continuous data. This method for central collection is useful in the short term, but for understanding the tipping point on a longer-term time scale, how are we supposed to continuously collect data from the centre?

As previously mentioned, Greenland is full of glaciers and hard-to-reach areas, meaning that getting to the centre is difficult, even if just to set up a remote station. The glaciers themselves, and the shapes carved out by the ice make traversing extremely difficult.

Humans will always be involved with setting up equipment, but sensors that are capable of sending data to researchers remotely will cut down the amount of interaction needed through in person trips.

Conditions in Greenland are some of the harshest on the planet. To set up equipment and monitoring stations, there must be a great amount of care and precaution taken, and it isn’t an easy task.

Below is an interactive map with the locations of all known ice density data from SumUP, a community effort to compile in-situ data on the world's ice sheets, with measurements added to the database in the last five years highlighted:

(Data Credit: SumUP Database)

Why Should We Explore This Gap

If it were not for the issues currently associated with temporary stations, it would be possible to use a combination of satellite and on-the-ground data sources. This will allow for several data sources to work simultaneously and combine efforts to understand the tipping point system, especially since satellite data is often noisy, and therefore less accurate.

Without complete data, we often have to rely on models, estimates or averages. Models are used to help estimate, understand and predict data and observations when specific data is not available. Whilst the current selection of data provides a solid foundation for knowledge, the opportunity of real time, continuous data will mean the models for the ice  sheet have tighter constraints, meaning that there will be more accurate models as a result.

Reaching these parts of the ice sheet is critical, as understanding the gaps that exist in Greenland’s data will help improve future predictions, improve existing models and help prepare for any consequences. The ARIA project, which CosmicRay is under, aims to better understand the Greenland Ice Sheet through their monitoring and data collection, with an ultimate aim of improving the models.

If autonomous methods are put in place, this will allow for a wider range of data, both in the areas of Greenland, but also in time, as manual approaches can only provide data across limited periods of time.