TY - JOUR
T1 - Application of PROMICE Q-Transect in Situ Accumulation and Ablation Measurements (2000-2017) to Constrain Mass Balance at the Southern Tip of the Greenland Ice Sheet
AU - Hermann, Mauro
AU - Box, Jason E.
AU - Fausto, Robert S.
AU - Colgan, William T.
AU - Langen, Peter L.
AU - Mottram, Ruth
AU - Wuite, Jan
AU - Noël, Brice
AU - van den Broeke, Michiel R.
AU - van As, Dirk
N1 - Funding Information:
This study is funded by DANCEA (Danish Cooperation for Environment in the Arctic) under the Danish Ministry of Energy, Buildings and Climate through the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) and by the Independent Research Fund Denmark grant 4002-00234. Mauro Hermann visiting GEUS for 5 months was supported by a grant from the Excellence Scholarship and Opportunity Programme (ESOP) from Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich. Intellectual and practical support for 2017 fieldwork came from Matthias Jaggi and Martin Schneebeli from the WSL Institut für Schnee und Lawinenforschung (SLF), Davos Switzerland. The stake networks Q1 to Q6 were initiated in September 2013 with financial support from Vice.com. The work was developed under the framework of the Network on Arctic Glaciology of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC-NAG). Brice Noël and Michiel van den Broeke acknowledge support from the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (NESSC). We declare no real or perceived financial conflicts of interests for any of the authors. Much of the field data used here are listed in tables and supporting information and can be provided upon request through http://promice.dk. PROMICE station data are available from http://promice.dk/WeatherArchive.html. We thank Þorsteinn Þorsteinsson of the Icelandic Met Office for providing comments on the manuscript. We thank Xavier Fettweis for sharing MAR output and providing constructive input as an external reviewer.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018. The Authors.
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - With nine southern Greenland ice sheet ablation area locations, the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) “Q-transect” is a source of snow accumulation and ice ablation data spanning 17 years (2000 to present). Snow water equivalence measurements below equilibrium line altitude enable resolving the location and magnitude of an orographic precipitation maximum. Snow depth skillfully predicts snow water equivalence in this region, for which we find no evidence of change 2001-2017. After describing observed accumulation and ablation spatiotemporal patterns, we examine surface mass balance (SMB) in 5.5-km HIRHAM5, 7.5-km Modèle Atmosphèrique Régional (MAR) v3.7, and 1-km Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO2.3p2) regional climate model (RCM) output. HIRHAM5 and RACMO2.3p2 overestimate accumulation below equilibrium line altitude by 2 times. MAR SMB is closer to observations but lacks a distinct orographic peak. RCM ablation underestimation is attributable to overestimated snowfall (HIRHAM5 and RACMO2.3p2), overestimated bare ice albedo (MAR), and underestimation of downward turbulent heat fluxes. Calibrated ablation area RCM SMB data yield -0.3 ± 0.5 Gt/a SMB of the 559-km2 marine-terminating Sermilik glacier (September 2000 to October 2012). Using Enderlin et al. (2014, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL059010) ice discharge data, Sermilik glacier’s total mass balance is -1.3 ± 0.5 Gt/a with interannual variability dominated by SMB. The area specific mass loss is 17 to 20 times greater than the whole ice sheet mass loss after Andersen et al. (2015, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2014.10.015) and Colgan et al. (2015, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2015.06.016), highlighting the Q-transect’s situation in an ice mass loss hot spot.
AB - With nine southern Greenland ice sheet ablation area locations, the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) “Q-transect” is a source of snow accumulation and ice ablation data spanning 17 years (2000 to present). Snow water equivalence measurements below equilibrium line altitude enable resolving the location and magnitude of an orographic precipitation maximum. Snow depth skillfully predicts snow water equivalence in this region, for which we find no evidence of change 2001-2017. After describing observed accumulation and ablation spatiotemporal patterns, we examine surface mass balance (SMB) in 5.5-km HIRHAM5, 7.5-km Modèle Atmosphèrique Régional (MAR) v3.7, and 1-km Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO2.3p2) regional climate model (RCM) output. HIRHAM5 and RACMO2.3p2 overestimate accumulation below equilibrium line altitude by 2 times. MAR SMB is closer to observations but lacks a distinct orographic peak. RCM ablation underestimation is attributable to overestimated snowfall (HIRHAM5 and RACMO2.3p2), overestimated bare ice albedo (MAR), and underestimation of downward turbulent heat fluxes. Calibrated ablation area RCM SMB data yield -0.3 ± 0.5 Gt/a SMB of the 559-km2 marine-terminating Sermilik glacier (September 2000 to October 2012). Using Enderlin et al. (2014, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL059010) ice discharge data, Sermilik glacier’s total mass balance is -1.3 ± 0.5 Gt/a with interannual variability dominated by SMB. The area specific mass loss is 17 to 20 times greater than the whole ice sheet mass loss after Andersen et al. (2015, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2014.10.015) and Colgan et al. (2015, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2015.06.016), highlighting the Q-transect’s situation in an ice mass loss hot spot.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062683661&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1029/2017JF004408
DO - 10.1029/2017JF004408
M3 - Article
SN - 2169-9003
VL - 123
SP - 1235
EP - 1256
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface
IS - 6
ER -