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A high-resolution record of Greenland mass balance
- Source :
- Geophysical Research Letters. 43:7002-7010
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2016.
-
Abstract
- We map recent Greenland Ice Sheet elevation change at high spatial (5 km) and temporal (monthly) resolution using CryoSat-2 altimetry. After correcting for the impact of changing snowpack properties associated with unprecedented surface melting in 2012, we find good agreement (3 cm/yr bias) with airborne measurements. With the aid of regional climate and firn modeling, we compute high spatial and temporal resolution records of Greenland mass evolution, which correlate (R = 0.96) with monthly satellite gravimetry and reveal glacier dynamic imbalance. During 2011–2014, Greenland mass loss averaged 269 ± 51 Gt/yr. Atmospherically driven losses were widespread, with surface melt variability driving large fluctuations in the annual mass deficit. Terminus regions of five dynamically thinning glaciers, which constitute less than 1% of Greenland’s area, contributed more than 12% of the net ice loss. This high-resolution record demonstrates that mass deficits extending over small spatial and temporal scales have made a relatively large contribution to recent ice sheet imbalance.
- Subjects :
- geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Ice stream
Elevation
Greenland ice sheet
Glacier
Snowpack
010502 geochemistry & geophysics
01 natural sciences
Geophysics
Climatology
Temporal resolution
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Altimeter
Ice sheet
Geology
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00948276
- Volume :
- 43
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........f5638f375ccdf996d19e5a741053b8c0