Atmospheric summer teleconnections and Greenland Ice Sheet surface mass variations: insights from MERRA-2 ...

• Main Authors: Lim, Young-Kwon, Schubert, Siegfried D., Nowicki, Sophie M. J., Lee, Jae N., Molod, Andrea M., Cullather, Richard I., Zhao, Bin, Velicogna, Isabella
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: IOP 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Merra; Ice Sheet; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.13016/m272v9-utmw; https://mdsoar.org/handle/11603/28607

The relationship between leading atmospheric teleconnection patterns and Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) temperature, precipitation, and surface mass balance (SMB) are investigated for the last 36 summers (1979–2014) based on Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications version 2 reanalyses. The results indicate that the negative phase of both the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Arctic Oscillation, associated with warm and dry conditions for the GrIS, lead to SMB decreases within 0–1 months. Furthermore, the positive phase of the East Atlantic (EA) pattern often lags the negative NAO, reflecting a dynamical linkage between these modes that acts to further enhance the warm and dry conditions over the GrIS, leading to a favorable environment for enhanced surface mass loss. The development of a strong negative NAO in combination with a strong positive EA in recent years leads to significantly larger GrIS warming compared to when the negative NAO occurs in combination with a negative or weak ...