August 25, 2019 - Ice off Shannon Island, Greenland

Greenland’s summer ice melt season in 2019 has been the strongest since the record melt year of 2012, spurred by a major melt event in late July 2019. Spurred by a bubble of warm air that moved over Greenland after delivering a record-setting heat wave over Europe, billions of tons of meltwater streamed into the Atlantic Ocean, making a direct and immediately contribution to sea level rise. On August 1, the Greenland ice sheet experienced its largest single-day volume loss ever recording, pouring an estimated 12.5 billion tons of ice pouring into the ocean.

The record-matching melt season isn’t limited to Greenland, however. On August 15, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reported that the Arctic sea ice extent is tracking close to 2012, the year with the lowest minimum in the satellite records. Sea ice volume was also tracking at low levels.

On August 14, NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over northeastern Greenland, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board to acquire a striking false-color image centered on Shannon Island. This false-color image, using bands 7, 2, and 1, uses both visible and infrared light, helps to differentiate ice from cloud. Both are bright white in true-color images. In this image, ice and snow are electric blue, while cloud remains white. Vegetation is bright green, non-vegetated land appears brown and deep water appears inky black. Where very thin ice floats on seawater, the ice takes on a blue-black hue.

Most of the islands have become almost totally devoid of ice and the coastal areas are flush with growing vegetation. The sea ice floating on the Atlantic Ocean consists of some large, broken chunks, especially in the north. Most, however, floats as thin filigrees, floating in designs created by off-shore currents.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 8/14/2019
Resolutions: 1km (216.1 KB), 500m (576 KB), 250m (423.3 KB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC