Evaluating Greenland surface-mass-balance and firn-densification data using ICESat-2 altimetry

Smith, Benjamin E.; Medley, Brooke; Fettweis, Xavier; Sutterley, Tyler; Alexander, Patrick; Porter, David; Tedesco, Marco

doi:10.5194/tc-17-789-2023

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Evaluating Greenland surface-mass-balance and firn-densification data using ICESat-2 altimetry

Smith, Benjamin E.; Medley, Brooke; Fettweis, Xavier et al.

2023 • In The Cryosphere, 17 (2), p. 789-808

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/300183

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10.5194/tc-17-789-2023

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Earth-Surface Processes; Water Science and Technology

Abstract :

[en] Abstract. Surface-mass-balance (SMB) and firn-densification (FD) models are widely used in altimetry studies as a tool to separate atmospheric-driven from ice-dynamics-driven ice-sheet mass changes and to partition observed volume changes into ice-mass changes and firn-air-content changes. Until now, SMB models have been principally validated based on comparison with ice core and weather station data or comparison with widely separated flight radar-survey flight lines. Firn-densification models have been primarily validated based on their ability to match net densification over decades, as recorded in firn cores, and the short-term time-dependent component of densification has rarely been evaluated at all. The advent of systematic ice-sheet-wide repeated ice-surface-height measurements from ICESat-2 (the Ice Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite, 2) allows us to measure the net surface-height change of the Greenland ice sheet at quarterly resolution and compare the measured surface-height differences directly with those predicted by three FD–SMB models: MARv3.5.11 (Modèle Atmosphérique Régional version 3.5.11) and GSFCv1.1 and GSFCv1.2 (the Goddard Space Flight Center FD–SMB models version 1.1 and 1.2). By segregating the data by season and elevation, and based on the timing and magnitude of modelled processes in areas where we expect minimal ice-dynamics-driven height changes, we investigate the models' accuracy in predicting atmospherically driven height changes. We find that while all three models do well in predicting the large seasonal changes in the low-elevation parts of the ice sheet where melt rates are highest, two of the models (MARv3.5.11 and GSFCv1.1) systematically overpredict, by around a factor of 2, the magnitude of height changes in the high-elevation parts of the ice sheet, particularly those associated with melt events. This overprediction seems to be associated with the melt sensitivity of the models in the high-elevation part of the ice sheet. The third model, GSFCv1.2, which has an updated high-elevation melt parameterization, avoids this overprediction.

Disciplines :

Earth sciences & physical geography

Author, co-author :

Smith, Benjamin E.

Medley, Brooke

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

Sutterley, Tyler

Alexander, Patrick

Porter, David

Tedesco, Marco

Language :

English

Title :

Evaluating Greenland surface-mass-balance and firn-densification data using ICESat-2 altimetry

Publication date :

16 February 2023

Journal title :

The Cryosphere

ISSN :

1994-0416

eISSN :

1994-0424

Publisher :

Copernicus GmbH

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

789-808

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Tags :

CÉCI : Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif
Tier-1 supercomputer

Additional URL :

https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/789/2023/tc-17-789-2023.pdf

Funders :

NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Heising-Simons Foundation
NSF - National Science Foundation

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since 17 February 2023

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