Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (1958–2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models
To study near-surface melt changes over the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) since 1979, melt extent estimates from two regional climate models were compared with those obtained from spaceborne microwave brightness temperatures using two different remote sensing algorithms. The results from the two models...
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ftcolumbiauniv:oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/D8Z60P02 2023-05-15T16:28:14+02:00 Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (1958–2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models Fettweis, X. Tedesco, Marco van den Broeke, M. Ettema, J. 2011 https://doi.org/10.7916/D8Z60P02 English eng European Geosciences Union https://doi.org/10.7916/D8Z60P02 Albedo Meltwater Climatic geomorphology Ice sheets--Measurement Ice sheets Geology Geomorphology Hydrology Articles 2011 ftcolumbiauniv https://doi.org/10.7916/D8Z60P02 2019-04-04T08:14:19Z To study near-surface melt changes over the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) since 1979, melt extent estimates from two regional climate models were compared with those obtained from spaceborne microwave brightness temperatures using two different remote sensing algorithms. The results from the two models were consistent with those obtained with the remote sensing algorithms at both daily and yearly time scales, encouraging the use of the models for analyzing melting trends before the satellite era (1958–1979), when forcing data is available. Differences between satellite-derived and model-simulated results still occur and are used here to identify (i) biases in the snow models (notably in the albedo parametrization, in the thickness of a snow layer, in the maximum liquid water content within the snowpack and in the snowfall impacting the bare ice appearance in summer) and (ii) limitations in the use of passive microwave data for snowmelt detection at the edge of the ice sheet due to mixed pixel effect (e.g., tundra or rock nearby the ice sheet). The results from models and spaceborne microwave sensors confirm a significant (p-value = 0.01) increase in GrIS surface melting since 1979. The melt extent recorded over the last years (1998, 2003, 2005 and 2007) is unprecedented in the last 50 yr with the cumulated melt area in the 2000's being, on the average, twice that of the 1980's. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet Tundra Columbia University: Academic Commons Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Columbia University: Academic Commons |
op_collection_id |
ftcolumbiauniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Albedo Meltwater Climatic geomorphology Ice sheets--Measurement Ice sheets Geology Geomorphology Hydrology |
spellingShingle |
Albedo Meltwater Climatic geomorphology Ice sheets--Measurement Ice sheets Geology Geomorphology Hydrology Fettweis, X. Tedesco, Marco van den Broeke, M. Ettema, J. Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (1958–2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models |
topic_facet |
Albedo Meltwater Climatic geomorphology Ice sheets--Measurement Ice sheets Geology Geomorphology Hydrology |
description |
To study near-surface melt changes over the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) since 1979, melt extent estimates from two regional climate models were compared with those obtained from spaceborne microwave brightness temperatures using two different remote sensing algorithms. The results from the two models were consistent with those obtained with the remote sensing algorithms at both daily and yearly time scales, encouraging the use of the models for analyzing melting trends before the satellite era (1958–1979), when forcing data is available. Differences between satellite-derived and model-simulated results still occur and are used here to identify (i) biases in the snow models (notably in the albedo parametrization, in the thickness of a snow layer, in the maximum liquid water content within the snowpack and in the snowfall impacting the bare ice appearance in summer) and (ii) limitations in the use of passive microwave data for snowmelt detection at the edge of the ice sheet due to mixed pixel effect (e.g., tundra or rock nearby the ice sheet). The results from models and spaceborne microwave sensors confirm a significant (p-value = 0.01) increase in GrIS surface melting since 1979. The melt extent recorded over the last years (1998, 2003, 2005 and 2007) is unprecedented in the last 50 yr with the cumulated melt area in the 2000's being, on the average, twice that of the 1980's. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fettweis, X. Tedesco, Marco van den Broeke, M. Ettema, J. |
author_facet |
Fettweis, X. Tedesco, Marco van den Broeke, M. Ettema, J. |
author_sort |
Fettweis, X. |
title |
Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (1958–2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models |
title_short |
Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (1958–2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models |
title_full |
Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (1958–2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models |
title_fullStr |
Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (1958–2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models |
title_full_unstemmed |
Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (1958–2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models |
title_sort |
melting trends over the greenland ice sheet (1958–2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models |
publisher |
European Geosciences Union |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.7916/D8Z60P02 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet Tundra |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet Tundra |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.7916/D8Z60P02 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7916/D8Z60P02 |
_version_ |
1766017861300518912 |