By Christa Marshall and ClimateWire, Source: Scientific American

Greenland’s snowy surface is now darker in the spring than it was before 2009, suggesting that the ice sheet’s melting and contribution to sea-level rise may be larger than expected, according to a new study.

The research in Nature Geoscience this week adds to a body of recent research finding that the Arctic’s albedo, or reflectiveness, may decline more sharply than original estimates. When snow is darker, it absorbs more solar energy and melts more easily. In the new study, French scientists pinpoint greater amounts of dust—driven by earlier melt seasons—as a chief culprit for the lower spring albedo of Greenland snow.

“This effect is most likely to accelerate the current rate at which Greenland is losing mass,” said Marie Dumont, a scientist at the French National Centre for Meteorological Research and author of the paper.

While it’s impossible to know how much the melt rate could go up, she said a minimum estimate likely is an additional 2 centimeters of sea-level rise from Greenland by 2100. The Greenland ice sheet is expected to raise global sea level by approximately 20 centimeters or more by 2100, according to the paper.

Read more at: Scientific American