Examination of Drivers of Large Surface Melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet

The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is an ice sheet situated on the island of Greenland. It has a surface area of about 1.74 million km² and contains a volume of ice equivalent to 7.4 m of global mean sea level rise. The GrIS is vulnerable to climate disruptions such as anthropogenic climate change. As a result of increased greenhouse gas emissions,...

Basal channels affecting oceanic melting and freezing of a rifted Antarctic ice shelf

Floating ice shelves regulate Antarctic ice sheet mass loss by buttressing land ice discharge toward the ocean. Next to basal melting, iceberg calving following the propagation of rifts has the potential to reduce this buttressing effect. However, rift propagation is largely unpredictable and generally not resolved in coarse climate models. The...

Evolution of the Greenland Ice Sheet under a Moderate Warming Scenario

The Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is an important component of the climate system and is a key contributor to future sea level rise, as it is storing frozen water that would raise sea levels by 7.4 m should it all melt (Bamber et al., 2018). Of particular concern is the amount of global warming we are facing now and in the future, as it is becoming...

Future Greenland Melt on Multi-Century and Multi-Millennial Time Scales assessed with the Community Ice Sheet Model version 2.1

The Greenland Ice Sheet is the world’s second largest ice sheet, storing an equivalent of 7.3 meters of sea level rise. Due to climate change, the Greenland ice sheet is currently losing mass at an accelerated rate. Ice sheet models are used to project long term melt of the ice sheet, which are often forced by output from climate models. Most of...

Connection of future Arctic sea ice retreat with regional climate change and increased melting over Greenland

Today’s climate warming is unequivocal. Evidence from observations and satellite records show that Arctic Ocean is losing its summer sea ice cover with a rapid pace and is dominated by young and thinner ice. The ice loss has already caused heating of the overlying atmosphere. At the same time, the Greenland ice sheet (GIS) surface mass balance...

A SAR-derived long-term record of glacier evolution in North-West Greenland

Observations show that the Greenland ice sheet is losing mass with accelerating pace. Ice discharge trough outlet glaciers contributes approximately for half of the mass loss. However, the role of marine-terminating outlet glaciers on the response of the Greenland ice sheet to climate change is relatively unknown. In recent years, observations...