Annual Gradient Melt over Greenland 1979 through 2007
The ice sheet melt extent is a daily (or every-other-day, prior to August, 1987) estimate of the spatial extent of wet snow on the Greenland ice sheet derived from passive microwave satellite brightness temperature characteristics. This indicator of melt on each area of the ice sheet for each day of observation is physically based on the changes in microwave emission characteristics observable in data. Although it is not a direct measure of the snow wetness, it is representative of the amount of ice loss due to seasonal melting that occurs on the Greenland ice sheet.
This animation is a time series showing the regions of the Greenland ice sheet where melt occurred for more than three days between May 1st and September 30th for each year. Areas in which melt occurred for longer time periods are shown in a darker red while those areas melted for fewer days are shown in lighter red. Areas melted three or less days during the year are not colored.
This animation shows the change in annual melt over Greenland for each year from 1979 through 2007. The color depicts the number of melt days during the season.
Melt during 1979
Melt during 1980
Melt during 1981
Melt during 1982
Melt during 1983
Melt during 1984
Melt during 1985
Melt during 1986
Melt during 1987
Melt during 1988
Melt during 1989
Melt during 1990
Melt during 1991
Melt during 1992
Melt during 1993
Melt during 1994
Melt during 1995
Melt during 1996
Melt during 1997
Melt during 1998
Melt during 1999
Melt during 2000
Melt during 2001
Melt during 2002
Melt during 2003
Melt during 2004
Melt during 2005
Melt during 2006
Melt during 2007
Color bar showing days of melt during the season. Regions of three or fewer days is not colored. Regions of more than 75 days of melt are shown as the darkest red.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
The Next Generation Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
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Visualizer
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
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Scientist
- Waleed Abdalati (NASA/GSFC)
Release date
This page was originally published on Wednesday, November 7, 2007.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:55 PM EDT.
Datasets used in this visualization
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[DMSP: SSM/I]
ID: 11Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Special Sensor Microwave Imager
See all pages that use this dataset -
[Nimbus-7: SMMR]
ID: 78 -
Greenland Ice Sheet Melt Characteristics
ID: 594This dataset can be found at: http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0218.html
See all pages that use this dataset
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.