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POLAR SCIENCE

Atmospheric rivers melt Greenland

Recent years have seen increased melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, contributing to accelerated rates of sea-level rise. New research suggests that this melting occurred due to an increased frequency of atmospheric rivers, narrow filaments of moist air moving polewards.

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Fig. 1: Example of an atmospheric river event on 24 August 2011.

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Correspondence to William Neff.

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Neff, W. Atmospheric rivers melt Greenland. Nature Clim Change 8, 857–858 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0297-4

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