According to newly revealed satellite imagery, the Ilulissat ice fjord ( Ilulissat Kangerlua in Greenlandic) no longer has icebergs at its front in Disko Bay. Illusiatt translates into English means icebergs.
The ice fjord is fed by the most dynamic glacier on earth, Jakobshavn Isbrae. This glacier is prolific in shedding icebergs, and they remain in Disko Bay up to the calving front in winter. When winter arrives and sea ice freezes, it forms a melange of icebergs cemented together with sea ice. The melange provides a buttressing effect to the fast-moving glacier—apparently, no more.
Greenland is out of balance with more frequent calving, and surface melt, where the ice volume lost is not replaced with snowfall. It is the beginning stages of the Greenland tipping point.
The sea ice is the Achilles heel of the Arctic, which is warming four to seven degrees faster than the planet. Less sea ice means the permafrost is thawing quicker, releasing high amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere.
Sea ice extent has been low this winter and predominately thinner than in decades past. Sea ice exits the Arctic through the Nares Strait to the Atlantic, and the sea ice in front of Jakobshavn flows toward the relatively ice-free strait taking the icebergs with it.
The Worldview Illussiate image link is in the embed from Kris Van Steenbergen.
Jakobshavn stopped retreating and got thicker due to cold water inflow in 2015 and 2016.
Meanwhile, the US Thule air base, which monitors the missiles of Russia, is deteriorating rapidly from thawing permafrost.
Inside Climate News:
Thule is now facing its most critical military role since the end of the Cold War, but global warming is hindering its mission: Rising Arctic temperatures are thawing the permafrost on which it was built seven decades ago. From cracks in the 10,000-foot runway to the slanting of the floor in its banquet hall, the air base is crumbling.
Thule is the northernmost U.S. military base in the world and the first outpost that would detect an imminent attack by Russia on the United States. It is the only U.S. operation that can monitor all of Russia’s missile activity, sending a warning within 60 seconds to decision-makers at the Pentagon in Washington and bases in California and Colorado.
Then there is a growing regional challenge. The melting of Greenland’s ice sheet has opened the way for icebreakers to sail from Russia, allowing the country to establish trade routes and military infrastructure in the Arctic. For China, these new routes present similar possibilities.
The American military is belatedly scrambling to address the base’s deterioration, particularly the possibility that an infrastructure failure could disable Thule’s radar tracking. The Americans can’t risk that, even for a second.
“We cover the entirety of Russia,” said Lt. Col. April Foley, who oversees the radar at Thule. “We need defenders at all times.”
