Greenland's ice is melting faster than what it was previously imagined.

Last week, Antarctica made headlines. According to a study the yearly loss of ice from Antarctica has increased by an alarming rate of 280 per cent between 2001 and 2017. This time, it's Greenland.

According to a study, the ice sheet of Greenland is melting four times faster than in 2003. The ice sheet is melting due to continued and accelerating warming of the Earth's atmosphere. This may lead to faster rise in the sea level.

RISING SEA LEVEL

According to a PTI report, scientists are concerned about the sea level rise. They have long focused on Greenland's southeast and northwest regions. There large glaciers stream iceberg-sized chunks of ice into the Atlantic Ocean.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the largest sustained ice loss from early 2003 to mid-2013 came from Greenland's southwest region, which is mostly devoid of large glaciers.

Glacier in vicinity of the Sukkertoppen ice cap in southwest Greenland in 1935 | Photo from Nasa/Earth Observatory

"Whatever this was, it couldn't be explained by glaciers, because there are not many there. It had to be the surface mass - the ice was melting inland from the coastline," PTI quoted Michael Bevis, a professor at The Ohio State University in the US, as saying.

That melting, which researchers believe is largely caused by global warming, means that in the southwestern part of Greenland, growing rivers of water are streaming into the ocean during summer.

Southwest Greenland, which previously had not been considered a serious threat, will likely become a major future contributor to sea level rise, researchers said.

"We knew we had one big problem with increasing rates of ice discharge by some large outlet glaciers," he said.

"But now we recognise a second serious problem: Increasingly, large amounts of ice mass are going to leave as meltwater, as rivers that flow into the sea," Bevis said.

Fjord and glacier in east-central Greenland | Photo credits: Nasa/Maria Jose Vinas

The findings could have serious implications for island nations that are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels, researchers said according to the PTI report.

"The only thing we can do is adapt and mitigate further global warming - it is too late for there to be no effect. This is going to cause additional sea level rise. We are watching the ice sheet hit a tipping point," Bevis said.

ICE LOSS ACROSS GREENLAND

Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) involves twin satellites that measure ice loss across Greenland.

Data from these satellites showed that between 2002 and 2016, Greenland lost about 280 gigatonnes of ice per year, equivalent to 0.03 inches of sea level rise each year.

However, the rate of ice loss across the island was far from steady.

The team used data from Grace and from Global Positioning System (GPS) stations scattered around Greenland's coast to identify changes in ice mass.

Nasa's IceBridge observes effects of summer melt on Greenland ice sheet | Photo credits: Nasa/John Sonntag

The patterns they found show an alarming trend - by 2012, ice was being lost at nearly four times the rate which prevailed in 2003, researchers said.

This acceleration was focused in southwest Greenland, a part of the island which previously hadn't been known to be losing ice that rapidly, they said.

Bevis said a natural weather phenomenon - the North Atlantic Oscillation, which brings warmer air to West Greenland, as well as clearer skies and more solar radiation - was building on man-made climate change to cause unprecedented levels of melting and runoff, the PTI report said.

Global atmospheric warming enhances summertime melting, especially in the southwest. The North Atlantic Oscillation is a natural cycle that causes ice to melt under normal circumstances.

When combined with man-made global warming, though, the effects are supercharged.

"These oscillations have been happening forever. So why only now are they causing this massive melt? It's because the atmosphere is, at its baseline, warmer," Bevis said.

"The transient warming driven by the North Atlantic Oscillation was riding on top of more sustained, global warming," he said.

GREENLAND ICE MELT

Greenland's ice sheet is melting at an alarming rate which is now four times faster than 16 years. The warming of the Earth's atmosphere is leading to the faster rise in sea level.

The rate at which the ice is melting across the island was far from steady.

Between year 2002 and 2016 Greenland lost about 280 gigatonnes of ice per year. This ice loss is equivalent to 0.03 inches of sea level rise each year.