TY - JOUR
T1 - Evidence and analysis of 2012 Greenland records from spaceborne observations, a regional climate model and reanalysis data
AU - Tedesco, M.
AU - Fettweis, X.
AU - Mote, T.
AU - Wahr, J.
AU - Alexander, P.
AU - Box, J.E.
AU - Wouters, B.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements. M. T. and P. A. acknowledge the support of the NSF through grant no. 0909388 and of the NASA Cryospheric Sciences Program. B. W. is funded by a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IOF-301260). J. W.’s contributions were partially supported by NASA grant NNX08AF02G and NNXI0AR66G, and by NASA’s ‘Making Earth Science Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Program’.
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) 2013
PY - 2013/4/4
Y1 - 2013/4/4
N2 - A combined analysis of remote sensing observations, regional climate model (RCM) outputs and reanalysis data over the Greenland ice sheet provides evidence that multiple records were set during summer 2012. Melt extent was the largest in the satellite era (extending up to ∼ 97 % of the ice sheet) and melting lasted up to ∼ 2 months longer than the 1979-2011 mean. Model results indicate that near surface temperature was ∼ 3 standard deviations (σ ) above the 1958-2011 mean, while surface mass balance (SMB) was ∼ 3σ below the mean and runoff was 3.9σ above the mean over the same period. Albedo, exposure of bare ice and surface mass balance also set new records, as did the total mass balance with summer and annual mass changes of, respectively, −627 Gt and −574 Gt, 2σ below the 2003-2012 mean. We identify persistent anticyclonic conditions over Greenland associated with anomalies in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), changes in surface conditions (e.g., albedo, surface temperature) and preconditioning of surface properties from recent extreme melting as major driving mechanisms for the 2012 records. Less positive if not increasingly negative SMB will likely occur should these characteristics persist.
AB - A combined analysis of remote sensing observations, regional climate model (RCM) outputs and reanalysis data over the Greenland ice sheet provides evidence that multiple records were set during summer 2012. Melt extent was the largest in the satellite era (extending up to ∼ 97 % of the ice sheet) and melting lasted up to ∼ 2 months longer than the 1979-2011 mean. Model results indicate that near surface temperature was ∼ 3 standard deviations (σ ) above the 1958-2011 mean, while surface mass balance (SMB) was ∼ 3σ below the mean and runoff was 3.9σ above the mean over the same period. Albedo, exposure of bare ice and surface mass balance also set new records, as did the total mass balance with summer and annual mass changes of, respectively, −627 Gt and −574 Gt, 2σ below the 2003-2012 mean. We identify persistent anticyclonic conditions over Greenland associated with anomalies in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), changes in surface conditions (e.g., albedo, surface temperature) and preconditioning of surface properties from recent extreme melting as major driving mechanisms for the 2012 records. Less positive if not increasingly negative SMB will likely occur should these characteristics persist.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84879528945&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5194/tc-7-615-2013
DO - 10.5194/tc-7-615-2013
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84879528945
SN - 1994-0416
VL - 7
SP - 615
EP - 630
JO - Cryosphere
JF - Cryosphere
IS - 2
ER -