'The ice melted beneath our feet': The huskies that revealed the rapid shrinking of Greenland's ice

 In 2019, climate scientist Steffen Olsen took a striking photo of huskies that appeared to be walking on water. The image quickly went viral, highlighting the reality of Greenland's rapidly melting ice.

The photo was captured in June 2019, and it amazed the world as it showcased husky dogs seemingly walking on water in Greenland. Olsen, who works at the Danish Meteorological Institute and leads Blue Action—a European project investigating the effects of climate change in the Arctic—was surprised by the reaction to the photo. "It surprised me that so many people saw this as a beautiful image. I viewed it as a scary situation," he said.

In reality, the dogs were wading through ankle-deep meltwater on top of the sea ice in Inglefield Bredning, an 80-kilometer-long (49.7 miles) system in northwestern Greenland. "I learned to see the photo as an illusion. People don't see sea ice; they see dogs walking on water," Olsen explained.

Olsen took the photo while traveling with a scientific team monitoring sea and ice conditions near Qaanaaq, one of the world's northernmost towns. They were retrieving scientific instruments deployed during the winter. "We had been traveling for a few hours when we realized the melting was extreme; the ice had more or less melted beneath our feet," he recalled. "The local hunters and I were surprised that there were no dry spots to get the dogs and sleds out of the water. We had to turn around and make our way back to the coast."

The dogs typically hesitate to get their paws wet, as they usually encounter water from cracks in the sea ice and must leap over it. "They hate it. But it was very warm that day, so I think they were happy to have cold feet," Olsen noted, mentioning that temperatures reached 14°C (57°F).

A few days later, the scientists managed to retrieve their instruments once the water drained through small cracks in the ice sheet. "You have a short period when you can travel again before the ice collapses and breaks up," Olsen added.

On average, Greenland loses about 234 billion tonnes of ice each year. Olsen was astounded by the rapid melting he observed when he took the photo on June 13, 2019. He remarked that he experienced only one other extreme event like this in his 15 years of research in Greenland. Such quick melting is unusual, he explained, as it requires a sudden influx of warm air while there is still fresh snow on the ice and solid sea ice. He described the event as a rare occurrence, as the local community told him, "You will have to wait 100 years to see something like this again."

Typically, melting in Greenland does not begin until later in the season, around late June or July. However, in 2019, it started in mid-April, roughly six to eight weeks earlier than the 1981-2020 average, affecting about 95% of Greenland's ice sheet, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Early melting events can create a "snowball effect," leading to increased melting because less snow and ice are available to reflect sunlight back into space, keeping the surface cool. Bianc Perren, a paleoclimatologist at the British Antarctic Survey, studies sediment cores from polar regions to better understand long-term climate variability.

Greenland experienced record ice loss in 2019, shedding a total of 532 billion tonnes from its massive ice sheet, as reported in a 2020 study. While 2019 was exceptionally warm, it wasn't the only year with significant melting; 2012 also saw notable warmth. Kelly Hogan, a marine geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey, explained that in 2012, the summer period was over 2°C (4°F) warmer than the average from 1981 to 2010 and more than 1.5°C (3°F) warmer for the entire ice sheet. "These extremes are happening more frequently than we had anticipated; they occur every few years," Hogan said.

What distinguishes Greenland from Antarctica is the amount of surface melting that occurs in the summer. "You don't see nearly as much melting in Antarctica," Hogan remarked. "When you see large volumes of water on the ice, it's truly shocking."

However, it is rare to witness "giant pools of water" on the surface, as observed in Olsen's photo. Typically, water seeps through cracks in the ice instead. This process can lift the ice sheet and move it toward the coast, resulting in less visible pooling of water.