McMillan, M orcid.org/0000-0002-5113-0177, Leeson, A, Shepherd, A et al. (12 more authors) (2016) A high resolution record of Greenland mass balance. Geophysical Research Letters, 43 (13). pp. 7002-7010. ISSN 0094-8276
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 modelling, 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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016, The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Greenland Ice Sheet; mass balance; altimetry; CryoSat-2; GRACE |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC No External Reference |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 17 Jun 2016 11:40 |
Last Modified: | 21 Jul 2020 16:00 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069666 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/2016GL069666 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:101031 |
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