Greenland's ice melt accelerating as surface darkens, raising sea levels

Winnowing away of the ice, exacerbated by soot blown on to the ice from wildfires, means Greenland's ice sheet is stuck in a 'feedback loop'

Greenland's vast ice sheet is in the grip of a dramatic "feedback loop" where the surface has been getting darker and less reflective of the sun, helping accelerate the melting of ice and fuelling sea level rises, new research has found.

The snowy surface of Greenland started becoming significantly less reflective of solar radiation from around 1996, the analysis found, with the ice absorbing 2% more solar energy per decade from this point. At the same time, summer near-surface temperatures in Greenland have increased at a rate of around 0.74C per decade, causing the ice to melt.