Ice Sheets Today
Data images and analyses of polar ice sheet melt conditions
Melt Analyses
Our scientific data analysis articles for the Greenland Ice Sheet melt season are typically published from April 1 to November 1. Antarctic Ice Sheet melt season articles are published from November 1 to April 1. Select an article below to explore ice sheet melt conditions by month and year-to-date.
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Greenland
As most of the western United States baked under a prolonged, record-setting heatwave at the beginning of September, Greenland also underwent a very unusual late-season melt event.
Greenland
A moderate melt surge swept across northern Greenland and then encompassed much of the ice sheet perimeter in mid-July. Overall, the 2022 summer season in Greenland continues at a modest pace relative to the past few years.
Antarctica
Greenland
Seasonal surface melting in Greenland got off to a slow start in 2022. In Antarctica, several areas had an intense coastal surface melting pulse at the end of the summer.
Antarctica
As a whole, surface melting on the Antarctic Ice Sheet has been near average. After a series of warm events followed by intense down-slope winds, the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula sustained widespread melting . The Peninsula also experienced a strong late-season melt event.
Antarctica
So far during the austral spring and summer, except for the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula and in the area of the Roi Baudion Ice Shelf, few areas on the Antarctic Ice Sheet had any significant surface melting as of this post.
Greenland
Two near-record melt events occurred in the 2021 melt season for the Greenland Ice Sheet, in late July and in mid-August. During the second event, an unprecedented occurrence of rain at the National Science Foundation’s Summit Station took place.
Greenland
On August 14, 2021, rain was observed at the highest point on the Greenland Ice Sheet for several hours, and air temperatures remained above freezing for about nine hours.
Greenland
The Greenland Ice Sheet had two extensive melt events in the second half of July. The second melt event had the seventh-largest melt area and fourth-highest runoff in the satellite record, which began in 1978.
Greenland
Surface melt and total melt-day area for the Greenland Ice Sheet at the end of the 2021 spring season was below the 1981 to 2010 average.
Antarctica
With the exception of the northern and southern Antarctic Peninsula, the Antarctic melt season for 2020 to 2021 was unremarkable and below the 1990 to 2020 average.
Antarctica
With a correction applied, a first look at the 2020 to 2021 season points to an intense melt season in the northernmost and southernmost Antarctic Peninsula, but generally below-average melting elsewhere on the continent.
Antarctica
As the Southern Hemisphere enters into the full of swing of summer, parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheet are experiencing surface melting.
Greenland
The 2020 melt season in Greenland is over, finishing thirteenth for cumulative melt-day extent in the 42-year satellite record. Melt extent was greater than any year prior to 2002, with about 70 percent of the ice sheet experiencing some melting.
Greenland
Melting through the peak of Greenland’s summer melt season has been well above the 1981 to 2010 average, but below the levels of many previous summers of the past decade.
Greenland
Spring melting over Greenland was near the long-term average, and concentrated along the southern coast, where extent was slightly above average.
Greenland
Low winter snow cover, springtime heat waves, and a sunny summer led to a large runoff of meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet in 2019, primarily from its western side.
Greenland
Warm air from Europe's heat wave reached Greenland on July 29 and 30, setting temperature records at Summit Station and melting about 90 percent of the ice sheet surface from July 30 to August 3. Melt runoff was estimated at 55 billion tons during the interval.
Greenland
Between June 11 and 20, an extensive area of the Greenland Ice Sheet surface melted. At its peak on June 12, thawing climbed from the western and eastern coasts to elevations above 3,000 meters (9,800 feet).
Greenland
Surface melting on the Northern Hemisphere’s largest mass of ice began during the second week of April, with several significant melting episodes at the end of the month and into early May.
Greenland
Three major melt events during late July and August brought the 2018 Greenland melt season to a close. Overall, conditions on the ice sheet were slightly warmer than average for the second half of the summer.