Record-breaking glacier melt on Svalbard

A newly published study by Norwegian researchers has analysed data from the Svalbard ice melt season in 2024. 

The results show the unprecedented speed at which local glaciers have melted - the summer of 2024 has been the worst melting season they have ever seen there. 

Glaciers currently occupy 53% of Svalbard’s land surface. But in just a few months, Svalbard lost about 1% of all its ice. This massive amount is almost the same as what Greenland lost during the same time period, even though Greenland is about 50 times bigger. 

The glaciology team at the Norwegian Polar Institute says in a post on Instagram that the Svalbard ice loss in 2024 "accounted for 10% of the sea-level rise contribution from all glaciers in the world."

Svalbard’s summer of 2024 serves as a forecast for future glacier meltdown in the Arctic, offering a glimpse into conditions by the end of the 21st century,” the study highlights. 

The scientists have also researched data from other nearby places around the Barents Sea - such as the Russian archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya - and concluded that the ice loss in 2024 was enough to raise the world’s oceans by about one quarter of a millimeter.

“Most of the 2024 glacier melt occurred during a 6-week period of a persistent atmospheric circulation pattern, causing record-high air temperatures,” the study emphasizes. 

This kind of heat is still very rare in today’s climate, but scientists think it could become normal by the end of this century. 

“The High-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard is recognized as especially exposed to rapid warming, with rates above the already elevated Arctic temperature increase.”

When glaciers on Svalbard retreat, it results not only in the release of more freshwater into the ocean. The permafrost also releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, as the Barents Observer reported earlier.