Greenland; Icesat‐2; ice mass loss; peripheral glacier; satellite altimetry; sea level rise; Green land; Ice clouds; Ice loss; Mass loss; North greenland; Geophysics; Earth and Planetary Sciences (all); General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Abstract :
[en] In recent decades, Greenland's peripheral glaciers have experienced large-scale mass loss, resulting in a substantial contribution to sea level rise. While their total area of Greenland ice cover is relatively small (4%), their mass loss is disproportionally large compared to the Greenland ice sheet. Satellite altimetry from Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and ICESat-2 shows that mass loss from Greenland's peripheral glaciers increased from 27.2 ± 6.2 Gt/yr (February 2003-October 2009) to 42.3 ± 6.2 Gt/yr (October 2018-December 2021). These relatively small glaciers now constitute 11 ± 2% of Greenland's ice loss and contribute to global sea level rise. In the period October 2018-December 2021, mass loss increased by a factor of four for peripheral glaciers in North Greenland. While peripheral glacier mass loss is widespread, we also observe a complex regional pattern where increases in precipitation at high altitudes have partially counteracted increases in melt at low altitude.
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Khan, Shfaqat A ; DTU Space Technical University of Denmark Kongens Lyngby Denmark
Colgan, William ; Department of Glaciology and Climate Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Copenhagen Denmark
Neumann, Thomas A; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD USA
van den Broeke, Michiel R ; Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands
Brunt, Kelly M ; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD USA ; Earth System ScienceInterdisciplinary Center University of Maryland College Park MD USA
Noël, Brice ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Climatologie et Topoclimatologie ; Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands
Bamber, Jonathan L ; Bristol Glaciology Centre University of Bristol Bristol UK ; Department of Aerospace and Geodesy Data Science in Earth Observation Technical University of Munich Munich Germany
Hassan, Javed; DTU Space Technical University of Denmark Kongens Lyngby Denmark
Bjørk, Anders A; Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
Language :
English
Title :
Accelerating Ice Loss From Peripheral Glaciers in North Greenland.
S. A. Khan acknowledges support from the Independent Research Fund Denmark—Natural Sciences Grant Nos. 1026‐00085B and Villum Fonden (Villum Experiment Programme) Project No. 40718. W. Colgan acknowledges support from the Independent Research Fund Denmark Grant No. 8049‐00003. B. B. Noël was funded by the NWO VENI grant VI.Veni.192.019. M. R. van den Broeke acknowledges support from the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre. T. A. Neumann and K. M. Brunt acknowledge support from the ICESat‐2 Project Science Office, J. L. Bamber received funding by the European Research Council (GlobalMass; Grant No. 694188) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of the international future lab AI4EO (Grant No. 01DD20001). Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers for insightful and constructive comments.S. A. Khan acknowledges support from the Independent Research Fund Denmark—Natural Sciences Grant Nos. 1026-00085B and Villum Fonden (Villum Experiment Programme) Project No. 40718. W. Colgan acknowledges support from the Independent Research Fund Denmark Grant No. 8049-00003. B. B. Noël was funded by the NWO VENI grant VI.Veni.192.019. M. R. van den Broeke acknowledges support from the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre. T. A. Neumann and K. M. Brunt acknowledge support from the ICESat-2 Project Science Office, J. L. Bamber received funding by the European Research Council (GlobalMass; Grant No. 694188) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of the international future lab AI4EO (Grant No. 01DD20001). Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers for insightful and constructive comments.
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