Scientist Seeks Connection Between Fire and Ice in Greenland
Scientist Seeks Connection Between Fire and Ice in Greenland
By: Rebecca Jacobson
Are wildfires speeding up ice melt in Greenland? Jason Box, founder of the Dark Snow project, is taking up a collection to find out.
Last summer, record-setting wildfires raged across Colorado and New Mexico. It was the third most devastating wildfire year on record in the U.S. Warmer and drier temperatures in recent decades has also led to increased fire activity in the Arctic tundra. The Anaktuvuk River fire in Alaska in 2007, for example, burned 401 square miles, an area the size of Cape Cod. It was the largest tundra fire ever recorded.
While forests and grasslands burned, the Arctic melted. Greenland's ice sheet melted at a faster rate than scientists had ever observed, with 90 percent of the mass thawing in July.
Box, who is a Greenland ice climatologist at the Byrd Polar Research Center, thinks there might be a connection between the wildfires and the unprecedented ice melt.
More:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/01/scientist-seeks-donations-to-fund-greenland-research.html