Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018
The Greenland Ice Sheet has been a major contributor to global sea-level rise in recent decades1,2, and it is expected to continue to be so3. Although increases in glacier flow4,5,6 and surface melting7,8,9 have been driven by oceanic10,11,12 and atmospheric13,14 warming, the magnitude and trajector...
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ftawi:oai:epic.awi.de:56302 2023-05-15T16:21:13+02:00 Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018 The IMBIE team, NaN Sasgen, Ingo 2019 https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/56302/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1855-2#citeas https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.2a8e2ec4-7bb2-4835-8193-0240e0e673b4 unknown Nature Publishing Group UK London The IMBIE team, N. and Sasgen, I. orcid:0000-0002-8993-0989 (2019) Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018 , Nature, 579 (7798), pp. 233-239 . doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1855-2 <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1855-2> , hdl:10013/epic.2a8e2ec4-7bb2-4835-8193-0240e0e673b4 EPIC3Nature, Nature Publishing Group UK London, 579(7798), pp. 233-239 Article isiRev 2019 ftawi https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1855-2 2022-06-26T23:12:18Z The Greenland Ice Sheet has been a major contributor to global sea-level rise in recent decades1,2, and it is expected to continue to be so3. Although increases in glacier flow4,5,6 and surface melting7,8,9 have been driven by oceanic10,11,12 and atmospheric13,14 warming, the magnitude and trajectory of the ice sheet’s mass imbalance remain uncertain. Here we compare and combine 26 individual satellite measurements of changes in the ice sheet’s volume, flow and gravitational potential to produce a reconciled estimate of its mass balance. The ice sheet was close to a state of balance in the 1990s, but annual losses have risen since then, peaking at 345 ± 66 billion tonnes per year in 2011. In all, Greenland lost 3,902 ± 342 billion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2018, causing the mean sea level to rise by 10.8 ± 0.9 millimetres. Using three regional climate models, we show that the reduced surface mass balance has driven 1,964 ± 565 billion tonnes (50.3 per cent) of the ice loss owing to increased meltwater runoff. The remaining 1,938 ± 541 billion tonnes (49.7 per cent) of ice loss was due to increased glacier dynamical imbalance, which rose from 46 ± 37 billion tonnes per year in the 1990s to 87 ± 25 billion tonnes per year since then. The total rate of ice loss slowed to 222 ± 30 billion tonnes per year between 2013 and 2017, on average, as atmospheric circulation favoured cooler conditions15 and ocean temperatures fell at the terminus of Jakobshavn Isbræ16. Cumulative ice losses from Greenland as a whole have been close to the rates predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their high-end climate warming scenario17, which forecast an additional 70 to 130 millimetres of global sea-level rise by 2100 compared with their central estimate. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Jakobshavn Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) Greenland Nature 579 7798 233 239 |
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Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) |
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ftawi |
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The Greenland Ice Sheet has been a major contributor to global sea-level rise in recent decades1,2, and it is expected to continue to be so3. Although increases in glacier flow4,5,6 and surface melting7,8,9 have been driven by oceanic10,11,12 and atmospheric13,14 warming, the magnitude and trajectory of the ice sheet’s mass imbalance remain uncertain. Here we compare and combine 26 individual satellite measurements of changes in the ice sheet’s volume, flow and gravitational potential to produce a reconciled estimate of its mass balance. The ice sheet was close to a state of balance in the 1990s, but annual losses have risen since then, peaking at 345 ± 66 billion tonnes per year in 2011. In all, Greenland lost 3,902 ± 342 billion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2018, causing the mean sea level to rise by 10.8 ± 0.9 millimetres. Using three regional climate models, we show that the reduced surface mass balance has driven 1,964 ± 565 billion tonnes (50.3 per cent) of the ice loss owing to increased meltwater runoff. The remaining 1,938 ± 541 billion tonnes (49.7 per cent) of ice loss was due to increased glacier dynamical imbalance, which rose from 46 ± 37 billion tonnes per year in the 1990s to 87 ± 25 billion tonnes per year since then. The total rate of ice loss slowed to 222 ± 30 billion tonnes per year between 2013 and 2017, on average, as atmospheric circulation favoured cooler conditions15 and ocean temperatures fell at the terminus of Jakobshavn Isbræ16. Cumulative ice losses from Greenland as a whole have been close to the rates predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their high-end climate warming scenario17, which forecast an additional 70 to 130 millimetres of global sea-level rise by 2100 compared with their central estimate. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
The IMBIE team, NaN Sasgen, Ingo |
spellingShingle |
The IMBIE team, NaN Sasgen, Ingo Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018 |
author_facet |
The IMBIE team, NaN Sasgen, Ingo |
author_sort |
The IMBIE team, NaN |
title |
Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018 |
title_short |
Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018 |
title_full |
Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018 |
title_fullStr |
Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018 |
title_sort |
mass balance of the greenland ice sheet from 1992 to 2018 |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group UK London |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/56302/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1855-2#citeas https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.2a8e2ec4-7bb2-4835-8193-0240e0e673b4 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Jakobshavn |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Jakobshavn |
op_source |
EPIC3Nature, Nature Publishing Group UK London, 579(7798), pp. 233-239 |
op_relation |
The IMBIE team, N. and Sasgen, I. orcid:0000-0002-8993-0989 (2019) Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018 , Nature, 579 (7798), pp. 233-239 . doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1855-2 <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1855-2> , hdl:10013/epic.2a8e2ec4-7bb2-4835-8193-0240e0e673b4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1855-2 |
container_title |
Nature |
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579 |
container_issue |
7798 |
container_start_page |
233 |
op_container_end_page |
239 |
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1766009221644550144 |