Contribution to the glaciology of northern Greenland from satellite radar interferometry
Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data from the ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites are used to measure the surface velocity, topography, and grounding line position of the major outlet glaciers in the northern sector of the Greenland ice sheet. The mass output of the glaciers at and above the...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt0mb694v3 2023-05-15T16:21:15+02:00 Contribution to the glaciology of northern Greenland from satellite radar interferometry Rignot, E Gogineni, S Joughin, I Krabill, W 34007 - 34019 2001-12-27 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0mb694v3 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt0mb694v3 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0mb694v3 CC-BY CC-BY Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, vol 106, iss D24 Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences article 2001 ftcdlib 2021-06-20T14:23:08Z Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data from the ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites are used to measure the surface velocity, topography, and grounding line position of the major outlet glaciers in the northern sector of the Greenland ice sheet. The mass output of the glaciers at and above the grounding line is determined and compared with the mass input. We find that the grounding line output is approximately in balance with the input, except for the three largest glaciers for which the mass loss is 4±3 km3 ice year-1 or 11±8% of the mass input. Along the coast we detect a systematic retreat of the grounding lines between 1992 and 1996 with InSAR, which implies that the outlet glaciers are thinning. The inferred coastal thinning is too large to be explained by a few warm summers. Glacier thinning must be of dynamic origin, that is, caused by spatial and temporal changes in ice velocity. Iceberg production from the glaciers is uncharacteristically low. It accounts for only 8% of the ice discharge to the ocean. About 55% of the ice is lost through basal melting (5-8 m ice year-1 on average) from the underside of the floating glacier tongues that are in contact with warm ocean waters. Mass losses are highest in the first 10 km of floating ice, where ice reaches the greatest depths and basal melting is 3 times larger than on average. Only a small increase in basal melting would suffice to disintegrate the floating glacier tongues. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland Ice Sheet University of California: eScholarship Greenland Summers Glacier ENVELOPE(167.467,167.467,-72.217,-72.217) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Rignot, E Gogineni, S Joughin, I Krabill, W Contribution to the glaciology of northern Greenland from satellite radar interferometry |
topic_facet |
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences |
description |
Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data from the ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites are used to measure the surface velocity, topography, and grounding line position of the major outlet glaciers in the northern sector of the Greenland ice sheet. The mass output of the glaciers at and above the grounding line is determined and compared with the mass input. We find that the grounding line output is approximately in balance with the input, except for the three largest glaciers for which the mass loss is 4±3 km3 ice year-1 or 11±8% of the mass input. Along the coast we detect a systematic retreat of the grounding lines between 1992 and 1996 with InSAR, which implies that the outlet glaciers are thinning. The inferred coastal thinning is too large to be explained by a few warm summers. Glacier thinning must be of dynamic origin, that is, caused by spatial and temporal changes in ice velocity. Iceberg production from the glaciers is uncharacteristically low. It accounts for only 8% of the ice discharge to the ocean. About 55% of the ice is lost through basal melting (5-8 m ice year-1 on average) from the underside of the floating glacier tongues that are in contact with warm ocean waters. Mass losses are highest in the first 10 km of floating ice, where ice reaches the greatest depths and basal melting is 3 times larger than on average. Only a small increase in basal melting would suffice to disintegrate the floating glacier tongues. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rignot, E Gogineni, S Joughin, I Krabill, W |
author_facet |
Rignot, E Gogineni, S Joughin, I Krabill, W |
author_sort |
Rignot, E |
title |
Contribution to the glaciology of northern Greenland from satellite radar interferometry |
title_short |
Contribution to the glaciology of northern Greenland from satellite radar interferometry |
title_full |
Contribution to the glaciology of northern Greenland from satellite radar interferometry |
title_fullStr |
Contribution to the glaciology of northern Greenland from satellite radar interferometry |
title_full_unstemmed |
Contribution to the glaciology of northern Greenland from satellite radar interferometry |
title_sort |
contribution to the glaciology of northern greenland from satellite radar interferometry |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2001 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0mb694v3 |
op_coverage |
34007 - 34019 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(167.467,167.467,-72.217,-72.217) |
geographic |
Greenland Summers Glacier |
geographic_facet |
Greenland Summers Glacier |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, vol 106, iss D24 |
op_relation |
qt0mb694v3 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0mb694v3 |
op_rights |
CC-BY |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
_version_ |
1766009264187375616 |