Intense sunshine is melting the ice caps on Mount Everest at much faster rate

According to data-collecting stations that have been recently set up atop Mount Everest, the mountain is experiencing the most intense sunlight on the entire planet which has led to melting of ice. The latest data has triggered climate concerns.

Amplified melting of ice caps on Mount Everest

According to the data collected by the weather station, the sun can be brutally fierce atop the peaks of Mount Everest. The heat from the Sun is not only responsible for nasty sunburns to the hikers but has also hastened the melting of the ice caps which in turn have a severe impact on the glaciers which the scientists fail to understand. 

The data was revealed on December 14, at the annual meeting of American Geophysical Union held in San Francisco. It is the first-ever collected data by the National Geographic Society and Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Extreme Expedition Everest which aims at studying climate change on Mount Everest. There have been five automatic weather stations installed which consist of two weather stations at the highest height on the planet. The elevation at which the weather stations have been installed at  27,600 feet. 

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The five weather stations have been deployed to gather information about air temperature, pressure, relative humidity and wind speed on Mount Everest. Four of the five stations are installed with a net radiometer which helps in recording the incoming and outgoing radiation. The main focus of the stations is to understand the energy which is provided by the sun to melt the snow and the ice caps in the high alpine environments. According to the scientists, the major reason is that there is less atmosphere to reflect the light and the region is closer to the equator. According to the researchers, earlier the solar radiations were not considered the reason for the melting of ice and the scientists based their facts solely on the air temperature. 

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According to the latest findings, there could be significant melting “hundreds of feet above the point where air temperatures drop below freezing,” said Tom Matthews, a climate scientist at Loughborough University in Britain and the meteorology co-lead for the expedition. According to the study, there are processes that the ice melting models are unable to capture. One of the processes involves the refreezing to the mountain ice. The melting water captures the heat of the sun, when it refreezes, it releases the same energy and fills the air-pockets of the surrounding snow causing them to melt. 

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