Mapping the vertical heterogeneity of Greenland's firn from 2011–2019 using airborne radar and laser altimetry.

The firn layer on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) plays a crucial role in buffering surface meltwater runoff, which is constrained by the available firn pore space and impermeable ice layers that limit deeper meltwater percolation. Understanding these firn properties is essential for predicting current and future meltwater runoff and its contribution to global sea-level rise. While very high-frequency (VHF) radars have been extensively used for surveying the GrIS, their lower bandwidth restricts direct firn stratigraphy extraction. In this study, we use concurrent VHF airborne radar and laser altimetry data collected as part of Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) over the period 2011–2019 to investigate vertical offsets in the radar surface reflection (dz). Our results, corroborated by modelling and firn core analyses, show that a dz larger than 1 m is strongly related to the vertical heterogeneity of a firn profile, and effectively delineates between vertically homogeneous and vertically heterogeneous firn profiles. Temporal variations in dz align with climatic events and reveal an expansion of heterogeneous firn between 2011–2013 covering an area of ~338,450 km², followed by firn replenishment over the years 2014–2019 spanning an area of ~664,734 km². Our approach reveals the firn evolution of key regions on the Greenland Ice Sheet, providing valuable insights for detecting potential alterations in meltwater runoff patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]