The Arctic is warming quicker than anywhere else on the world, and the toll on Greenlands huge ice sheet is becoming achingly clear.According to brand-new satellite data assembled by Polar Portal, a collection of four Danish government research institutions, Greenland has lost more than 5,100 billion tons (4,700 billion metric tons) of ice in the past 20 years– or roughly sufficient to flood the entire United States in 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) of water.This extensive ice loss has actually contributed to half an inch (1.2 centimeters) of global sea-level rise in simply 2 decades, the scientists composed on their website.The teams information covers the 20 years from April 2002 to August 2021 and is based on observations taken by the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) fleet of satellites, which launched in March 2002. (Image credit: GRACE/ Polar Portal)The GRACE data shows that Greenlands ice loss is most severe around the coasts, where the ice is quickly thinning and toppling into the ocean. If the whole Greenland ice sheet melts, it could raise worldwide sea levels by an incredible 24 feet (7.4 m); on the other hand, Antarctica includes enough ice to raise international sea levels by more than 200 feet (60 m) if completely melted, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.Originally published on Live Science.
