The melting of the Greenland ice sheet has contributed 1.2 centimetres to the global sea level rise in just under 20 years, according to a monitor.
The Greenland ice sheet has lost around 4,700 gigatonnes since measurements began in April 2002, enough to submerge the entire US by half a metre, satellite data from the Grace and Grace-FO programmes up to August 2021 shows.
The data indicates that the ice is melting, especially on Greenland's west coast, the Danish Polar Portal tweeted this week. One gigatonne is the equivalent of 1 billion tonnes.
The Greenland ice sheet covers a good four-fifths of the total area of the largest island on Earth. Only the Antarctic ice sheet is larger.
The Polar Portal is a platform where Danish Arctic research institutions present findings on the state of the Greenland ice sheet and sea ice.
Greenland is largely autonomous, but officially belongs to Denmark. The island is particularly affected by climate change, as the Arctic has already warmed significantly more than any other region on earth.
