[en] Abstract
Rain‐on‐snow (ROS) events in the Arctic can lead to major impacts on the snow cover, cryosphere and environment. During the last decades, these events have significantly increased, mostly due to climate change. Here, we use outputs from the regional climate model MAR (version 3.14) driven by the ERA5 reanalysis at 10‐km resolution over Greenland, in the period 1940–2023. MAR is used to simulate the climatological properties of summertime ROS events over Greenland, and their long‐term changes over the period. The analyses also focused on the years after 1979, when reanalyses are more reliable. We found that both the spatial extension, the frequency, and rainfall amounts associated with ROS events all strongly increased, especially along the West and East coasts of Greenland. These changes either appeared, or strongly accelerated, during the last 40 yrs. We also analyzed the synoptic configurations conducive to major ROS events (the top 10% in terms of size and amounts). Poleward advection of moisture and heat generally prevails but shows non‐negligible variability in their location, direction and strength of associated centers of action. About 10%–20% of those major ROS events correspond to atmospheric rivers, events that occur 1%–2% of the time but increase the probability of rainfall over Greenland by a factor 10 to nearly 40 locally, with respect to the climatology.
Centre/Unité de recherche :
SPHERES - ULiège
Disciplines :
Sciences de la terre & géographie physique
Auteur, co-auteur :
Frame, Emilie ; Centre de Recherches de Climatologie / Biogéosciences CNRS / Université Bourgogne Europe Dijon France ; Département de Géosciences Ecole Normale Supérieure‐PSL Paris France
Pohl, Benjamin ; Centre de Recherches de Climatologie / Biogéosciences CNRS / Université Bourgogne Europe Dijon France
Amory, Charles; Institut des Géosciences de L’Environnement CNRS/UGA/IRD/G‐INP Grenoble France
Fettweis, Xavier ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Climatologie et Topoclimatologie
Buffet, Victoire ; Centre de Recherches de Climatologie / Biogéosciences CNRS / Université Bourgogne Europe Dijon France ; Institut des Géosciences de L’Environnement CNRS/UGA/IRD/G‐INP Grenoble France
Bernard, Eric ; UMR 6049 THEMA CNRS / Université Marie et Louis Pasteur Besançon France
Champagne, Olivier ; UR RiverLy Institut National de Recherche pour L'agriculture L'alimentation et L'environnement (INRAE) Villeurbanne France
Favier, Vincent ; Institut des Géosciences de L’Environnement CNRS/UGA/IRD/G‐INP Grenoble France
Langue du document :
Anglais
Titre :
Rainfall and Rain‐on‐Snow Events Over Greenland in Summer: Climatology, Trends, Synoptics
Date de publication/diffusion :
02 mars 2026
Titre du périodique :
Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres
ISSN :
2169-897X
eISSN :
2169-8996
Maison d'édition :
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Volume/Tome :
131
Fascicule/Saison :
5
Peer reviewed :
Peer reviewed vérifié par ORBi
Tags :
CÉCI : Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif
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