The Svalbard archipelago’s ice caps suffered extreme episodes of melting in summer 2024, brought on by exceptionally high air temperatures.
The Svalbard archipelago’s ice caps suffered extreme episodes of melting in summer 2024, brought on by exceptionally high air temperatures.
Situated between mainland Norway and the North Pole, Svalbard is one of the fastest-warming places on the planet. Over half of its land area is covered with ice, composing about 6 percent of the planet’s glaciated area outside of Greenland and Antarctica.
In late July and early August 2024, temperatures hovered around 4 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) above average for this part of the Arctic Circle. The heat took its toll on Svalbard, home to some of Earth’s northernmost glaciers, causing snow and ice to rapidly melt.
Read More: NASA Earth Observatory
Photo Credit: Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey
