Surface energy balance and modeled firn density, Greenland ice sheet, 1998-2015

Recent Arctic atmospheric warming induces more frequent surface melt in the accumulation area of the Greenland ice sheet. This increased melting modifies the near-surface firn structure and density and may reduce the firn’s capacity to retain meltwater. Yet, few long-term observational records are a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Baptiste Vandecrux
Format: Dataset
Language:unknown
Published: Arctic Data Center 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://search.dataone.org/view/urn:uuid:971c7341-ad4e-4711-9832-9a959c76d59d
Description
Summary:Recent Arctic atmospheric warming induces more frequent surface melt in the accumulation area of the Greenland ice sheet. This increased melting modifies the near-surface firn structure and density and may reduce the firn’s capacity to retain meltwater. Yet, few long-term observational records are available to determine the evolution and drivers of firn density. In Vandecrux et al. (2018, DOI: 10.1029/2017JF004597), we compiled and gap-filled Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net) automatic weather station data from Crawford Point, Dye-2, NASA-SE and Summit between 1998 and 2015. These records then forced a coupled surface energy balance and firn evolution model. In this data package we firstly provide, for each site, our calculations of surface conditions: hourly 2 m air temperature and humidity, 10 m wind speed as well as energy and mass fluxes at the surface. Secondly we give the simulated firn density along with the contributions of its climatic drivers.