scholarly journals Potential positive feedback between Greenland Ice Sheet melt and Baffin Bay heat content on the west Greenland shelf

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (12) ◽  
pp. 4922-4930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Castro de la Guardia ◽  
Xianmin Hu ◽  
Paul G. Myers
Keyword(s):  
Positive Feedback ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
The West ◽  
Baffin Bay ◽  
West Greenland

scholarly journals Topographic and Glaciological Controls on Holocene Ice-Sheet Margin Dynamics. Central West Greenland

1990 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 307-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.R. Warren ◽  
N.R.J. Hulton
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Warm Climate ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The West ◽  
West Greenland ◽  
The Past

The retreat of the West Greenland ice sheet from its Sisimiut (Wisconsinan) glacial maximum, was punctuated by a series of Stillstands or small readvances that formed numerous moraines. These landforms have been interpreted in the past as the result of short-term, regional falls in ablation-season temperatures. However, mapping of the geomorphological evidence south of Ilulissat (Jakobshavn) suggests that retreat behaviour was not primarily governed by climate, and therefore that the former ice margins are not palaeoclimatically significant. During warm climate ice-sheet wastage, the successive quasi-stable positions adopted by the ice margin were largely governed by topography. The retreat of the inherently unstable calving glaciers was arrested only at topographically-determined locations where stability could be achieved.

scholarly journals Characteristics of the lower ablation zone of the West Greenland ice sheet for energy-balance modelling

1996 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 160-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiel van den Broeke
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Global Radiation ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Longwave Radiation ◽  
Turbulent Fluxes ◽  
Ablation Zone ◽  
The West ◽  
West Greenland

In this paper, we present the summer-time energy balance for a site in the lower ablation zone of the West Greenland ice sheet. The summer climate of this part of Greenland is sunny and dry. The energy that is available for melting (on average 174 W m−2or 4.5 cm w.e.d−1) is mainly provided by net global radiation two-thirds and sensible-heat flux (one-third). The contribution of the sub-surface heat flux, the latent-heat flux and the net longwave radiation to the energy balance are small. We tested some parameterizations to calculate energy-balance components that are currently used in general circulation models, energy-balance models and mesoscale meteorological models. For the area and time period under consideration, parameterizations that use screen-level temperature for the calculation of incoming longwave radiation systematically underestimate this quantity by 10 W m−2owing to the proximity of the melting-ice surface that restricts temperature increase of the lowest air layers. The incoming global radiation was predicted correctly. Simple explicit schemes that calculate the stability corrections for turbulent fluxes as a function of the bulk Richardson number tend to underestimate the turbulent fluxes by 15 W m−2. The aerodynamic roughness lengthz0derived from wind-speed profiles appears to be erroneously small, leading to underestimation of the fluxes by 30 W m−2. Probably, the wind profile is distorted by the rough terrain. An estimate ofz0biased on microtopographical survey yielded a more realistic result. Because all errors work in the same direction, the use of some of the parameterizations can cause serious underestimation of the melting energy.

scholarly journals Partitioning of melt energy and meltwater fluxes in the ablation zone of the west Greenland ice sheet

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. van den Broeke ◽  
P. Smeets ◽  
J. Ettema ◽  
C. van der Veen ◽  
R. van de Wal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Ablation Zone ◽  
The West ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
West Greenland ◽  
Ice Melt ◽  
June July

Abstract. We present four years (August 2003–August 2007) of surface mass balance data from the ablation zone of the west Greenland ice sheet along the 67° N latitude circle. Sonic height rangers and automatic weather stations continuously measured accumulation/ablation and near-surface climate at distances of 6, 38 and 88 km from the ice sheet margin at elevations of 490, 1020 and 1520 m a.s.l. Using a melt model and reasonable assumptions about snow density and percolation characteristics, these data are used to quantify the partitioning of energy and mass fluxes during melt episodes. The lowest site receives very little winter accumulation, and ice melting is nearly continuous in June, July and August. Due to the lack of snow accumulation, little refreezing occurs and virtually all melt energy is invested in runoff. Higher up the ice sheet, the ice sheet surface freezes up during the night, making summer melting intermittent. At the intermediate site, refreezing in snow consumes about 10% of the melt energy, increasing to 40% at the highest site. The sum of these effects is that total melt and runoff increase exponentially towards the ice sheet margin, each time doubling between the stations. At the two lower sites, we estimate that radiation penetration causes 20–30% of the ice melt to occur below the surface.

scholarly journals Early Holocene history of the west Greenland Ice Sheet and the GH-8.2 event

2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 904-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.J. Long ◽  
D.H. Roberts ◽  
S. Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
The West ◽  
West Greenland ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals Surface radiation balance in the ablation zone of the west Greenland ice sheet

2008 ◽  
Vol 113 (D13) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiel van den Broeke ◽  
Paul Smeets ◽  
Janneke Ettema ◽  
Peter Kuipers Munneke
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Surface Radiation ◽  
Radiation Balance ◽  
Ablation Zone ◽  
The West ◽  
West Greenland

scholarly journals Partitioning of melt energy and meltwater fluxes in the ablation zone of the west Greenland ice sheet

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Van den Broeke ◽  
P. Smeets ◽  
J. Ettema ◽  
C. Van der Veen ◽  
R. Van de Wal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Ablation Zone ◽  
The West ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
West Greenland ◽  
Ice Melt ◽  
June July

Abstract. We present four years of surface mass balance data from the ablation zone of the west Greenland ice sheet along the 67° N latitude circle. Sonic height rangers and automatic weather stations continuously measured accumulation/ablation and near-surface climate at distances of 6, 38 and 88 km from the ice sheet margin at elevations of 490, 1020 and 1520 m a.s.l. Using a melt model and reasonable assumptions about snow density and percolation characteristics, these data are used to quantify the partitioning of energy and mass fluxes during melt episodes. The lowest site receives very little winter accumulation, and ice melting is nearly continuous in June, July and August. Due to the lack of snow accumulation, little refreezing occurs and virtually all melt energy is invested in runoff. Higher up the ice sheet, the ice sheet surface freezes up during the night, making summer melting intermittent. At the intermediate site, refreezing in snow consumes about 10% of the melt energy, increasing to 40% at the highest site. The sum of these effects is that total melt and runoff increase exponentially towards the ice sheet margin, each time doubling between the stations. At the two lower sites, we estimate that radiation penetration causes 20–30% of the ice melt to occur below the surface.

scholarly journals Topographic and Glaciological Controls on Holocene Ice-Sheet Margin Dynamics. Central West Greenland

1990 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 307-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.R. Warren ◽  
N.R.J. Hulton
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Warm Climate ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The West ◽  
West Greenland ◽  
The Past

The retreat of the West Greenland ice sheet from its Sisimiut (Wisconsinan) glacial maximum, was punctuated by a series of Stillstands or small readvances that formed numerous moraines. These landforms have been interpreted in the past as the result of short-term, regional falls in ablation-season temperatures. However, mapping of the geomorphological evidence south of Ilulissat (Jakobshavn) suggests that retreat behaviour was not primarily governed by climate, and therefore that the former ice margins are not palaeoclimatically significant. During warm climate ice-sheet wastage, the successive quasi-stable positions adopted by the ice margin were largely governed by topography. The retreat of the inherently unstable calving glaciers was arrested only at topographically-determined locations where stability could be achieved.

scholarly journals Characteristics of the lower ablation zone of the West Greenland ice sheet for energy-balance modelling

1996 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 160-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiel van den Broeke
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Global Radiation ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Longwave Radiation ◽  
Turbulent Fluxes ◽  
Ablation Zone ◽  
The West ◽  
West Greenland

In this paper, we present the summer-time energy balance for a site in the lower ablation zone of the West Greenland ice sheet. The summer climate of this part of Greenland is sunny and dry. The energy that is available for melting (on average 174 W m−2 or 4.5 cm w.e.d−1) is mainly provided by net global radiation two-thirds and sensible-heat flux (one-third). The contribution of the sub-surface heat flux, the latent-heat flux and the net longwave radiation to the energy balance are small. We tested some parameterizations to calculate energy-balance components that are currently used in general circulation models, energy-balance models and mesoscale meteorological models. For the area and time period under consideration, parameterizations that use screen-level temperature for the calculation of incoming longwave radiation systematically underestimate this quantity by 10 W m−2 owing to the proximity of the melting-ice surface that restricts temperature increase of the lowest air layers. The incoming global radiation was predicted correctly. Simple explicit schemes that calculate the stability corrections for turbulent fluxes as a function of the bulk Richardson number tend to underestimate the turbulent fluxes by 15 W m−2. The aerodynamic roughness length z0 derived from wind-speed profiles appears to be erroneously small, leading to underestimation of the fluxes by 30 W m−2. Probably, the wind profile is distorted by the rough terrain. An estimate of z0 biased on microtopographical survey yielded a more realistic result. Because all errors work in the same direction, the use of some of the parameterizations can cause serious underestimation of the melting energy.

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