Billows of black carbon rising from forest fires in the Northern Hemisphere can swaddle the snow on Greenland’s ice sheet and hasten the frozen country’s melt.
Similar to asphalt radiating the sun’s heat, the dark particles of carbon can raise the surface temperature of snow, which relies on reflective powers to stay cold. Thus black carbon, part of the soot formed in wildfires, could speed the ice sheet’s thaw by melting snow atop the ice sheet, a new study suggests. That resulting meltwater then trickles into the ice sheet’s frozen core.
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