Domestic technology helps monitor melting of ice sheet

Domestically developed weather satellites and technology have played a pivotal role in China's real-time monitoring of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, according to scientists with Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

Marking a step forward for the nation's research and understanding of polar climate and ocean change, the team's results showed that the largest ice body in the Northern Hemisphere has begun seasonal surface melting, with the amount of thawing ice nearing the average of previous years.

Data suggested that from May 31 to early June, the ice sheet's surface was melting rapidly. On May 31, about 133,000 square kilometers of ice sheet surface were melting, or 7.6 percent of the total area.