Mass Balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet at High Elevations

Comparison of ice discharge from higher elevation areas of the entire Greenland Ice Sheet with total snow accumulation gives estimates of ice thickening rates over the past few decades. On average, the region has been in balance, but with thickening of 21 centimeters per year in the southwest and th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Thomas, R., Akins, T., Csatho, B., Fahnestock, M., Gogineni, P., Kim, C., Sonntag, J.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2000
Subjects:
Multidisciplinary
Greenland
Ice Sheet
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.289.5478.426
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.289.5478.426
Description
Summary:Comparison of ice discharge from higher elevation areas of the entire Greenland Ice Sheet with total snow accumulation gives estimates of ice thickening rates over the past few decades. On average, the region has been in balance, but with thickening of 21 centimeters per year in the southwest and thinning of 30 centimeters per year in the southeast. The north of the ice sheet shows less variability, with average thickening of 2 centimeters per year in the northeast and thinning of about 5 centimeters per year in the northwest. These results agree well with those from repeated altimeter surveys, except in the extreme south, where we find substantially higher rates of both thickening and thinning.

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