mattsmith48
August 10th, 2017, 10:32 AM
For people conspiracy theorist and idiots who still need evidence: Greenland, you know that island in the Atlantic between Canada and Europe often painted in white on maps because its suppose to covered in ice, well its on fire.
http://www.popsci.com/greenland-on-fire
Greenland, where even the capital Nuuk, is located north of the Arctic Circle, is mostly famous for one thing—its ice. This isn’t exactly a surprise given that roughly 80 percent of the nation is covered in frozen water, mostly in the form of glaciers. What is surprising, however, is, that there’s a massive, wildfire burning roughly 90 miles northeast of Sisimiut, a town of 5,500 situated on Greenland’s west coast.
This isn't the only place currently on fire—Popular Science has tracked wildfires across the United States, Canada, and much of Europe and beyond. But in what is already a weird fire season, this may be the most bizarre. Greenland does occasionally have wildfires, but the general consensus is that they’re rare. The 20 percent of Greenland that isn’t ice includes shrubs, bushes, mosses and grasses, which are all prime fuel for the fires if the conditions are right. Generally, the conditions have been wrong, leaving conflagrations few and far between. That seems to be changing.
In recent years, Greenland, like much of the Arctic, has experienced higher than normal temperatures. And, for reasons that remain somewhat elusive, surface water seems to be disappearing on Greenland. The country is drying out. This combination means a normal phenomena—a lighting strike for example—has a better chance not only of setting off a spark, but of that spark igniting an inferno.
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory satellites first detected that there might be a fire in the area on July 31st. Then, over the next week a pair of satellites—Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Suomi NPP—collected daily images of the fire, and they weren't the only ones taking pictures. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured the high-resolution image of the fire posted above, while the European Space Agency's Sentinel 2 satellite captured the below image...
http://www.popsci.com/greenland-on-fire
Greenland, where even the capital Nuuk, is located north of the Arctic Circle, is mostly famous for one thing—its ice. This isn’t exactly a surprise given that roughly 80 percent of the nation is covered in frozen water, mostly in the form of glaciers. What is surprising, however, is, that there’s a massive, wildfire burning roughly 90 miles northeast of Sisimiut, a town of 5,500 situated on Greenland’s west coast.
This isn't the only place currently on fire—Popular Science has tracked wildfires across the United States, Canada, and much of Europe and beyond. But in what is already a weird fire season, this may be the most bizarre. Greenland does occasionally have wildfires, but the general consensus is that they’re rare. The 20 percent of Greenland that isn’t ice includes shrubs, bushes, mosses and grasses, which are all prime fuel for the fires if the conditions are right. Generally, the conditions have been wrong, leaving conflagrations few and far between. That seems to be changing.
In recent years, Greenland, like much of the Arctic, has experienced higher than normal temperatures. And, for reasons that remain somewhat elusive, surface water seems to be disappearing on Greenland. The country is drying out. This combination means a normal phenomena—a lighting strike for example—has a better chance not only of setting off a spark, but of that spark igniting an inferno.
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory satellites first detected that there might be a fire in the area on July 31st. Then, over the next week a pair of satellites—Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Suomi NPP—collected daily images of the fire, and they weren't the only ones taking pictures. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured the high-resolution image of the fire posted above, while the European Space Agency's Sentinel 2 satellite captured the below image...