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Title: Changes in the firn structure of the western Greenland Ice Sheet caused by recent warming

Abstract

Atmospheric warming over the Greenland Ice Sheet during the last 2 decades has increased the amount of surface meltwater production, resulting in the migration of melt and percolation regimes to higher altitudes and an increase in the amount of ice content from refrozen meltwater found in the firn above the superimposed ice zone. Here we present field and airborne radar observations of buried ice layers within the near-surface (0–20 m) firn in western Greenland, obtained from campaigns between 1998 and 2014. We find a sharp increase in firn-ice content in the form of thick widespread layers in the percolation zone, which decreases the capacity of the firn to store meltwater. The estimated total annual ice content retained in the near-surface firn in areas with positive surface mass balance west of the ice divide in Greenland reached a maximum of 74 ± 25 Gt in 2012, when compared to the 1958–1999 average of 13 ± 2 Gt, while the percolation zone area more than doubled between 2003 and 2012. Increased melt and column densification resulted in surface lowering averaging -0.80 ± 0.39 m yr-1 between 1800 and 2800 m in the accumulation zone of western Greenland. Since 2007, modeled annual meltmore » and refreezing rates in the percolation zone at elevations below 2100 m surpass the annual snowfall from the previous year, implying that mass gain in the region is retained after melt in the form of refrozen meltwater. Furthermore, if current melt trends over high elevation regions continue, subsequent changes in firn structure will have implications for the hydrology of the ice sheet and related abrupt seasonal densification could become increasingly significant for altimetry-derived ice sheet mass balance estimates.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [3];  [6]
  1. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
  2. The University of Edinburgh, Edinburg (United Kingdom)
  3. Utrecht University, Utrecht (The Netherlands)
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  5. University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen (United Kingdom)
  6. The University of Sheffield, Sheffield (United Kingdom)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1208660
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1224048
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-20081
Journal ID: ISSN 1994-0424
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
The Cryosphere (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: The Cryosphere (Online); Journal Volume: 9; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 1994-0424
Publisher:
European Geosciences Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES

Citation Formats

de la Peña, S., Howat, I. M., Nienow, P. W., van den Broeke, M. R., Mosley-Thompson, E., Price, S. F., Mair, D., Noël, B., and Sole, A. J. Changes in the firn structure of the western Greenland Ice Sheet caused by recent warming. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.5194/tc-9-1203-2015.
de la Peña, S., Howat, I. M., Nienow, P. W., van den Broeke, M. R., Mosley-Thompson, E., Price, S. F., Mair, D., Noël, B., & Sole, A. J. Changes in the firn structure of the western Greenland Ice Sheet caused by recent warming. United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1203-2015
de la Peña, S., Howat, I. M., Nienow, P. W., van den Broeke, M. R., Mosley-Thompson, E., Price, S. F., Mair, D., Noël, B., and Sole, A. J. Thu . "Changes in the firn structure of the western Greenland Ice Sheet caused by recent warming". United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1203-2015. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1208660.
@article{osti_1208660,
title = {Changes in the firn structure of the western Greenland Ice Sheet caused by recent warming},
author = {de la Peña, S. and Howat, I. M. and Nienow, P. W. and van den Broeke, M. R. and Mosley-Thompson, E. and Price, S. F. and Mair, D. and Noël, B. and Sole, A. J.},
abstractNote = {Atmospheric warming over the Greenland Ice Sheet during the last 2 decades has increased the amount of surface meltwater production, resulting in the migration of melt and percolation regimes to higher altitudes and an increase in the amount of ice content from refrozen meltwater found in the firn above the superimposed ice zone. Here we present field and airborne radar observations of buried ice layers within the near-surface (0–20 m) firn in western Greenland, obtained from campaigns between 1998 and 2014. We find a sharp increase in firn-ice content in the form of thick widespread layers in the percolation zone, which decreases the capacity of the firn to store meltwater. The estimated total annual ice content retained in the near-surface firn in areas with positive surface mass balance west of the ice divide in Greenland reached a maximum of 74 ± 25 Gt in 2012, when compared to the 1958–1999 average of 13 ± 2 Gt, while the percolation zone area more than doubled between 2003 and 2012. Increased melt and column densification resulted in surface lowering averaging -0.80 ± 0.39 m yr-1 between 1800 and 2800 m in the accumulation zone of western Greenland. Since 2007, modeled annual melt and refreezing rates in the percolation zone at elevations below 2100 m surpass the annual snowfall from the previous year, implying that mass gain in the region is retained after melt in the form of refrozen meltwater. Furthermore, if current melt trends over high elevation regions continue, subsequent changes in firn structure will have implications for the hydrology of the ice sheet and related abrupt seasonal densification could become increasingly significant for altimetry-derived ice sheet mass balance estimates.},
doi = {10.5194/tc-9-1203-2015},
journal = {The Cryosphere (Online)},
number = 3,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

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Ice Core Records of West Greenland Melt and Climate Forcing
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Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: results and insights from a new model
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Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: Results and insights from a new model
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