Recent Ice-Sheet Growth in the Interior of Greenland

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Johannessen, Ola M., Khvorostovsky, Kirill, Miles, Martin W., Bobylev, Leonid P.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2005
• Subjects: Greenland; Ice Sheet; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1115356; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1115356

A continuous data set of Greenland Ice Sheet altimeter height from European Remote Sensing satellites (ERS-1 and ERS-2), 1992 to 2003, has been analyzed. An increase of 6.4 ± 0.2 centimeters per year (cm/year) is found in the vast interior areas above 1500 meters, in contrast to previous reports of high-elevation balance. Below 1500 meters, the elevation-change rate is –2.0 ± 0.9 cm/year, in qualitative agreement with reported thinning in the ice-sheet margins. Averaged over the study area, the increase is 5.4 ± 0.2 cm/year, or ∼60 cm over 11 years, or ∼54 cm when corrected for isostatic uplift. Winter elevation changes are shown to be linked to the North Atlantic Oscillation.