Extreme contrasts between warm, moist air, and cold dry air, make for rapid and dramatic change in the environment of coastal Greenland, as evidenced in this mysterious fog effect over Sisimiut.

Meltfactor: Jason Box’s blog:

Surface reflectivity of sunlight is called “albedo”. Albedo is a Latin-based word referring to whiteness. The higher the albedo, the more sunlight can be reflected. As albedo decreases, more sunlight can be absorbed.

The absorption of sunlight is the largest single source of melt energy on the Greenland ice sheet.

Surface albedo across Greenland is mapped using data from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite-borne sensors. Before melting is underway, albedo is above 80%.