TY - JOUR
T1 - Warming, glacier melt and surface energy budget from weather station observations in the Melville Bay region of northwest Greenland
AU - van As, Dirk
PY - 2011/7
Y1 - 2011/7
N2 - The glaciers in the Melville Bay region of northwest Greenland have shown a mean retreat since the earliest observations at the beginning of the 20th century. The largest, Steenstrup Gletscher, has retreated ∼ 20 km, partly during the period of atmospheric cooling 1940-80. Melville Bay airtemperature observations starting in 1981 indicate a regional change of +0.20° Ca-1. This exceeds the warming on the east coast of Greenland, confirming the west coast to be a region of relatively large change, also in a global perspective. The largest temperature increase is observed in the winter months (0.3-0.4° Ca-1). Results from a 4 year (2004-08) net ablation record obtained by an automatic weather station (AWS) near the calving front of Steenstrup Gletscher show an ablation rate that is relatively low for a low-elevation position on the Greenland ice sheet (2.4m ice equivalent per year). A first-order estimate from positive degree-day totals suggests that net ablation has roughly doubled since the 1980s. A surface energy and mass-balance model is applied to the Steenstrup AWS data to quantify the energy flux contributions to surface melt. Solar radiation is the main source for melt energy, but, due to shortwave radiation penetration into the ice, only one-third of the melt takes place at the glacier surface; nearly two-thirds occurs within the upper ice layers.
AB - The glaciers in the Melville Bay region of northwest Greenland have shown a mean retreat since the earliest observations at the beginning of the 20th century. The largest, Steenstrup Gletscher, has retreated ∼ 20 km, partly during the period of atmospheric cooling 1940-80. Melville Bay airtemperature observations starting in 1981 indicate a regional change of +0.20° Ca-1. This exceeds the warming on the east coast of Greenland, confirming the west coast to be a region of relatively large change, also in a global perspective. The largest temperature increase is observed in the winter months (0.3-0.4° Ca-1). Results from a 4 year (2004-08) net ablation record obtained by an automatic weather station (AWS) near the calving front of Steenstrup Gletscher show an ablation rate that is relatively low for a low-elevation position on the Greenland ice sheet (2.4m ice equivalent per year). A first-order estimate from positive degree-day totals suggests that net ablation has roughly doubled since the 1980s. A surface energy and mass-balance model is applied to the Steenstrup AWS data to quantify the energy flux contributions to surface melt. Solar radiation is the main source for melt energy, but, due to shortwave radiation penetration into the ice, only one-third of the melt takes place at the glacier surface; nearly two-thirds occurs within the upper ice layers.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79960479646&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3189/002214311796405898
DO - 10.3189/002214311796405898
M3 - Article
SN - 0022-1430
VL - 57
SP - 208
EP - 220
JO - Journal of Glaciology
JF - Journal of Glaciology
IS - 202
ER -