Rain is becoming more common across Greenland’s ice sheet and it may be playing an important role in rising sea levels. Greenland’s 660,000-square mile ice sheet contains enough fresh water to flood coastal cities around the world. Warm air over the sheet is causing it to melt, but new work reveals that rainfall is also causing more melting than previously thought. An analysis of satellite and weather station records suggests that around 300 melt events in Greenland between 1979 and 2012 were linked to rainfall. Over this time, rain-associated melting became twice as frequent in summer, and three times as frequent in winter. Rain now appears to account for 28 per cent of the ice sheet’s melt. The analysis highlights an under-monitored area, says Robin Smith, at the University of Reading, UK, who was not involved in […]