646688 external_news 1618944997 1618944997 Nearly a decade ago, global news outlets reported vast ice melt in the Arctic as sapphire lakes glimmered across the previously frozen Greenland Ice Sheet, one of the most important contributors to sea-level rise. A new study reveals the long-term impact of that extreme melt. Using a new approach to ice-penetrating radar data, a team of scientists, including Winnie Chu, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has shown that this melting left behind a contiguous layer of refrozen ice inside the snowpack. Most importantly, the formation of the melt layer changed the ice sheet’s behavior by reducing its ability to store future meltwater.

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