Unprecedented atmospheric conditions (1948–2019) drive the 2019 exceptional melting season over the Greenland ice sheet

[en] Understanding the role of atmospheric circulation anomalies on the surface mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is fundamental for improving estimates of its current and future contributions to sea level rise. Here, we show, using a combination of remote sensing observations, regional climate model outputs, reanalysis data, and artificial neural networks, that unprecedented atmospheric conditions (1948–2019) occurring in the summer of 2019 over Greenland promoted new record or close-to-record values of surface mass balance (SMB), runoff, and snowfall. Specifically, runoff in 2019 ranked second within the 1948–2019 period (after 2012) and first in terms of surface mass balance negative anomaly for the hydrological year 1 September 2018–31 August 2019. The summer of 2019 was characterized by an exceptional persistence of anticyclonic conditions that, in conjunction with low albedo associated with reduced snowfall in summer, enhanced the melt–albedo feedback by promoting the absorption of solar radiation and favored advection of warm, moist air along the western portion of the ice sheet towards the north, where the surface melt has been the highest since 1948. The analysis of the frequency of daily 500 hPa geopotential heights obtained from artificial neural networks shows that the total number of days with the five most frequent atmospheric patterns that characterized the summer of 2019 was 5 standard deviations above the 1981–2010 mean, confirming the exceptional nature of the 2019 season over Greenland.

Research center :

Sphères - SPHERES

Disciplines :

Earth sciences & physical geography

Author, co-author :

Tedesco, Marco

Fettweis, Xavier ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Climatologie et Topoclimatologie

Language :

English

Title :

Unprecedented atmospheric conditions (1948–2019) drive the 2019 exceptional melting season over the Greenland ice sheet

Publication date :

15 April 2020

Journal title :

The Cryosphere

ISSN :

1994-0416

eISSN :

1994-0424

Publisher :

Copernicus Group, Germany

Volume :

Pages :

1209–1223

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Tags :

CÉCI : Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif

Additional URL :

https://www.the-cryosphere.net/14/1209/2020/

Funders :

F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE]
CÉCI - Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif [BE]

Available on ORBi :

since 16 April 2020

Statistics

Number of views

963 (3 by ULiège)

Number of downloads

169 (3 by ULiège)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

109

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

Bibliography

Abdalati, W. and Steffen, K: Passive microwave-derived snow melt regions on the Greenland ice sheet, Geophys. Res. Lett., 22, 787-790, 1995.
Bennartz, R., Shupe, M., Turner, D., Walden, V., Steffen, K., Cox, C.,. Kulie, M. S., Miller, N., and Pettersen, C.: July 2012 Greenland melt extent enhanced by low-level liquid clouds, Nature, 496, 83-86, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12002, 2013.
Casey, K. A., Polashenski, C. M., Chen, J., and Tedesco, M.: Impact of MODIS sensor calibration updates on Greenland Ice Sheet surface reflectance and albedo trends, The Cryosphere, 11, 1781-1795, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-1781-2017, 2017.
Compo, G. P., Whitaker, J. S., Sardeshmukh, P. D., Matsui, N., Allan, R. J., Yin, X., Gleason, B. E., Vose, R. S., Rutledge, G., Bessemoulin, P., Brönnimann, S., Brunet, M., Crouthamel, R. I., Grant, A. N., Groisman, P. Y., Jones, P. D., Kruk, M., Kruger, A. C., Marshall, G. J., Maugeri, M., Mok, H. Y., Nordli, Ø., Ross, T. F., Trigo, R. M., Wang, X. L., Woodruff, S. D., and Worley, S. J.: The Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 137, 1-28, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.776, 2011.
Delhasse, A., Fettweis, X., Kittel, C., Amory, C., and Agosta, C.: Brief communication: Impact of the recent atmospheric circulation change in summer on the future surface mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet, The Cryosphere, 12, 3409-3418, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3409-2018, 2018.
Delhasse, A., Kittel, C., Amory, C., Hofer, S., van As, D., S. Fausto, R., and Fettweis, X.: Brief communication: Evaluation of the near-surface climate in ERA5 over the Greenland Ice Sheet, The Cryosphere, 14, 957-965, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-957-2020, 2020.
De Ridder, K. and Gallée, H.: Land surface-induced regional climate change in Southern Israel, J. Appl. Meteorol., 37, 1470-1485, 1998.
Fettweis, X.: Reconstruction of the 1979-2006 Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance using the regional climate model MAR, The Cryosphere, 1, 21-40, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-1-21-2007, 2007.
Fettweis, X.: MAR data, available at: ftp://ftp.climato.be/fettweis/MARv3.10/Greenland/NCEP1-1948-2019-20km/, last access: 30 March 2020a.
Fettweis, X.: MAR code, available at: http://mar.cnrs.fr/index.php?option-smdi=presentation&idm=10, last access: 30 March 2020b.
Fettweis, X., Tedesco, M., van den Broeke, M., and Ettema, J.: Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (1958-2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models, The Cryosphere, 5, 359-375, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-5-359-2011, 2011a.
Fettweis, X., Mabille, G., Erpicum, M., Nicolay, S., and Van den Broeke, M.: The 1958-2009 Greenland ice sheet surface melt and the mid-tropospheric atmospheric circulation, Clim. Dy-nam., 36, 139-159, 2011b.
Fettweis, X., Hanna, E., Lang, C., Belleflamme, A., Erpicum, M., and Gallée, H.: Brief communication "Important role of the mid-tropospheric atmospheric circulation in the recent surface melt increase over the Greenland ice sheet", The Cryosphere, 7, 241-248, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-241-2013, 2013.
Fettweis, X., Box, J. E., Agosta, C., Amory, C., Kittel, C., Lang, C., van As, D., Machguth, H., and Gallée, H.: Reconstructions of the 1900-2015 Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance using the regional climate MAR model, The Cryosphere, 11, 1015-1033, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-1015-2017, 2017.
Gallée, H.: Air-sea interactions over Terra Nova Bay during winter: Simulation with a coupled atmosphere-polynya model, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 13835-13849, 1997.
Gallée, H. and Schayes, G.: Development of a three-dimensional meso-? primitive equation model: Katabatic winds simulation in the area of Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica, Mon. Weather Rev., 122, 671-685, 1994.
Hanna, E., Huybrechts, P., Steffen, K., Cappelen, J., Huff, R., Shuman, C., Irvine-Fynn, T., Wise, S., and Griffiths, M.: Increased runoff from melt from the Greenland ice sheet: A response to global warming, J. Climate, 21, 331-341, https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JCLI1964.1, 2008.
Hanna, E., Navarro, F. J., Pattyn, F., Domingues, C. M., Fet-tweis, X., Ivins, E. R, Nicholls, R. J., Ritz, C., Smith, B., Tulaczyk, S., Whitehouse, P. L., and Zwally, J. H.: Ice-sheet mass balance and climate change, Nature, 498, 51-59, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12238, 2013.
Hanna, E., Fettweis, X., Mernild, S. H., Cappelen, J., Ribergaard, M. H., Shuman, C. A., Steffen, K., Wood, L., and Mote, T. L.: Atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional Greenland ice sheet surface melt in summer 2012, Int. J. Climatol., 34, 1022-1037, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3743, 2014.
Hanna, E., Cropper, T. E., Jones, P. D., Scaife, A. A., and Allan, R.: Recent seasonal asymmetric changes in the NAO (a marked summer decline and increased winter variability) and associated changes in the AO and Greenland Blocking Index, Int. J. Clima-tol., 35, 2540-2554, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4157, 2015.
Hanna, E., Cropper, T. E., Hall, R. J., and Cappelen, J.: Greenland blocking index 1851-2015: A regional climate change signal, Int. J. Climatol., 36, 4847-4861, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4673, 2016.
Hanna, E., Hall, R. J., Cropper, T. E., Ballinger, T. J., Wake, L., Mote, T., and Cappelen, J.: Greenland Blocking Index daily series 1851-2015: analysis of changes in extremes and links with North Atlantic and UK climate variability and change, Int. J. Cli-matol., 38, 3546-3564, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5516, 2018a.
Hanna, E., Fettweis, X., and Hall, R. J.: Brief communication: Recent changes in summer Greenland blocking captured by none of the CMIP5 models, The Cryosphere, 12, 3287-3292, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3287-2018, 2018b.
Hofer, S., Tedstone, A. J., Fettweis, X., and Bamber, J. L.: Decreasing cloud cover drives the recent mass loss on the Greenland Ice Sheet, Sci. Adv., 3, e1700584, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1700584, 2017.
Kalnay, E., Kanamitsu, M., Kistler, R., Collins, W., Deaven, D., Gandin, L., Iredell, M., Saha, S., White, G., Woollen, J., Zhu, Y., Leetmaa, A., Reynolds, B., Chelliah, M., Ebisuzaki, W., Hig-gins, W., Janowiak, J., Mo, K., Ropelewski, C., Wang, J., Jenne, R., and Joseph, D.: The NCEP-NCAR 40 year reanalysis project, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 77, 437-471, 1996.
Kohonen, T.: Self-Organizing Maps, 3rd Edn., Springer, Berlin, 2001.
Lefebre, F., Gallée, H., van Ypersele, J. P., and Greuell, W.: Modeling of snow and ice melt at ETH Camp (West Greenland): A study of surface albedo, J. Geophys. Res., 108, 4231, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JD001160, 2003.
Mattingly, K. S., Ramseyer, C. A., Rosen, J. J., Mote, T. L., and Muthyala, R.: Increasing water vapor transport to the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed using self-organizing maps, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 9250-9258, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL070424, 2016.
McIlveen, R.: Fundamentals of Weather and Climate, 2nd Edn., Oxford University Press, 2010.
McLeod, J. T. and Mote, T. L.: Linking interannual variability in extreme Greenland blocking episodes to the recent increase in summer melting across the Greenland ice sheet, Int. J. Climatol., 36, 1484-1499, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4440, 2016.
Mioduszewski, J. R., Rennermalm, A. K., Hamman, A., Tedesco, M., Noble, E. U., Stroeve, J. C., and Mote, T. L.: Atmospheric drivers of Greenland surface melt revealed by self-organizing maps, J. Geophys. Res., 121, 5095-5114, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD024550, 2016.
Tedesco, M.: Snowmelt detection over the Greenland ice sheet from SSM/I brightness temperature daily variations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L02504, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL028466, 2007.
Tedesco, M.: Assessment and development of snowmelt retrieval algorithms over Antarctica from K-band spaceborne brightness temperature (1979-2008), Remote Sens. Environ.t, 113, 979-997, 2009.
Tedesco, M., Abdalati, W., and Zwally, H. J.: Persistent surface snowmelt over Antarctica (1987-2006) from 19.35 GHz brightness temperatures, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L18504, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL031199, 2007.
Tedesco, M., Fettweis, X., van den Broeke, M. R., van de Wal, R. S. W., Smith, C. J. P., van de Berg, W. J., Serreze, M. C., and Box, J. E.: The role of albedo and accumulation in the 2010 melting record in Greenland, Environ. Res. Lett., 6, 014005, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/6/1/014005, 2011.
Tedesco, M., Doherty, S., Fettweis, X., Alexander, P., Jeyaratnam, J., and Stroeve, J.: The darkening of the Greenland ice sheet: trends, drivers, and projections (1981-2100), The Cryosphere, 10, 477-496, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-477-2016, 2016a.
Tedesco, M., Mote, T., Fettweis, X., Hanna, E., Jeyaratnam, J., Booth, J. F., Datta, R., and Briggs, K.: Arctic cut-off high drives the poleward shift of a new Greenland melting record, Nat. Commun., 7, 11723, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11723, 2016b.