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...

Interactions and Evolution of the Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Mass Balance with the Global Climate

One of the major consequences of ongoing global warming is the melting of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS). The GrIS, as the world’s second­ largest freshwater reservoir, has the potential to raise sea levels by 7.4 m (Bamber et al., 2018a,b). Such a sea­ level rise would have a devastating effect on coastal societies, where a large fraction of...

First Application of Artificial Neural Networks to Estimate 21st Century Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt

Future Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) melt projections are limited by the lack of explicit melt calculations within most global climate models and the high computational cost of dynamical downscaling with regional climate models (RCMs). Here, we train artificial neural networks (ANNs) to obtain relationships between quantities consistently...

The Spatiotemporal Variability of Cloud Radiative Effects on the Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Mass Balance

To better understand and quantify the impact of clouds on the Greenland Ice Sheet surface mass balance (SMB), we study the spatiotemporal variability of the cloud radiative effect (CRE). The total CRE is separated in short-term and long-term impacts by performing multiple simulations with the SNOWPACK model for 2001-+2010. The annual total...

Accelerated Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Loss Under High Greenhouse Gas Forcing as Simulated by the Coupled CESM2.1-CISM2.1

The Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is now losing mass at a rate of 0.7 mm of sea level rise (SLR) per year. Here we explore future GrIS evolution and interactions with global and regional climate under high greenhouse gas forcing with the Community Earth System Model version 2.1 (CESM2.1), which includes an interactive ice sheet component (the...

A comparison of physics-based model computed and GNSS observed vertical land displacement of Greenland

By combining the RACMO2.3 RCM output with GRACE non-tidal ocean and atmospheric pressure anomaly as well as geo-center motion corrections from 2003 to 2017, a physics-based model to estimate the vertical displacement of the Greenland surface bedrock is created. This model is able to convert the mass and pressure anomalies into vertical...

Greenland Ice Sheet Memory for Cloud Radiation determines its impact on the Surface Mass Balance

As of yet, there is no consensus on the role of the cloud radiative effect (CRE) on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). This study focuses on the seasonal and temporal variability of the CRE, to better understand the response of the firn. To do so, we combine satellite observations, climate-model output, and a snow model. We separate short-term and...

Towards quantifying changes in the modelled spatio-temporal variability in the ocean heat forcing to the Greenland tidewater glaciers: A study based on global climate model simulations of pre-industrial, historical and RCP 8.5 scenarios

The Greenland Ice Sheet has a total volume of 2900000 km3. In recent decades, the ice-sheet has been losing mass rapidly and has nearly doubled its contribution to sea-level rise. One main contributing factor has been the recent widespread acceleration of the tidewater glaciers that terminate in deep and narrow glacial fjords. However, our...

Future climate warming increases Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance variability

The integrated surface mass balance (SMB) of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) has large interannual variability. Long-term future changes to this variability will affect GrIS dynamics, freshwater fluxes, regional oceanography, and detection of changes in ice volume trends. Here we analyze a simulated 1850–2100 GrIS SMB time series from the...

Revisiting Greenland ice sheet mass loss observed by GRACE

In this paper we discuss a new method for determining mass time series for 16 hydrological basins representing the Greenland system (GS) whereby we rely on Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission data. In the same analysis we also considered observed mass changes over Ellesmere Island, Baffin Island, Iceland, and Svalbard (EBIS)....