Spitsbergen's glaciers lose gigantic masses of ice

This melt "exceeded all previous observations", writes the team led by Thomas V. Schuler from the University of Oslo in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences". It was a loss of around one percent of the total ice mass of Svalbard.

Svalbard is a group of islands north of Norway and east of Greenland. The main island is also called Spitsbergen and is one of the northernmost populated areas in the world.

0.27 millimeters rise in sea level

The researchers obtained the data with the help of observations, modeling and remote sensing. Taking into account the glacier loss in the surrounding areas, the Barents Sea, on the edge of which Spitsbergen lies, lost around 102.1 gigatons of ice (plus/minus 22.9 Gt) in a single year, according to the analyses.

This had an impact on the global sea level: according to the analyses, a good 0.27 millimetres of rise was due to this, 0.16 millimetres of which can be attributed to the melting in Svalbard alone.

Greenland has also lost so much ice

"To put the extreme loss of glacier mass in the summer of 2024 into perspective", the researchers provide comparative data: Greenland's ice sheet reportedly lost a comparable amount to Svalbard in the same summer (55 Gt plus/minus 35 Gt), but occupies an area around 50 times larger.

Such a larger glacier has more ice and snow, which means that it can take longer for the temperature changes to affect the entire mass. However, ice melt depends on many factors, including topography.

"An insight into the conditions in 70 years"

"Most of the glacier melt in 2024 occurred during a six-week period of persistent atmospheric circulation patterns that caused record-high air temperatures," the researchers write. Although these conditions are rare under current climate conditions, climate projections for the future indicate "that such temperature levels will become increasingly frequent by the end of the 21st century and may even exceed those of 2024".

The researchers therefore assume that the summer of 2024 in Svalbard can serve as a forecast for future glacier melting in the Arctic and provide "an insight into the conditions in 70 years' time".