Rapid ablation zone expansion amplifies north Greenland mass loss: modelled (RACMO2) and observed (MODIS) data sets
Since the early 1990s, the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) has been losing mass at an accelerating rate, primarily due to enhanced meltwater runoff following an atmospheric warming of ~1ºC. Here we show that a pronounced latitudinal contrast exists in the GrIS response to recent warming. The ablation are...
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ftdatacite:10.1594/pangaea.904428 2023-05-15T13:12:05+02:00 Rapid ablation zone expansion amplifies north Greenland mass loss: modelled (RACMO2) and observed (MODIS) data sets Noël, Brice P Y 2019 text/tab-separated-values https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.904428 https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.904428 en eng PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY RACMO File name File format File size Uniform resource locator/link to file Dataset dataset 2019 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.904428 2022-02-09T13:17:41Z Since the early 1990s, the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) has been losing mass at an accelerating rate, primarily due to enhanced meltwater runoff following an atmospheric warming of ~1ºC. Here we show that a pronounced latitudinal contrast exists in the GrIS response to recent warming. The ablation area in north Greenland expanded by 46%, almost twice as much as in the south (+25%), significantly increasing the relative contribution of the north to total GrIS mass loss. This latitudinal contrast originates from a different response to the recent change in large-scale Arctic summertime atmospheric circulation, promoting southwesterly advection of warm air towards the GrIS. In the southwest, persistent high atmospheric pressure reduced cloudiness, increasing runoff through enhanced absorption of solar radiation; in contrast, increased early-summer cloudiness in north Greenland enhanced atmospheric warming through decreased longwave heat loss. This triggered a rapid snowline retreat, causing early bare ice exposure, amplifying northern runoff.The data set includes:5.5 km data: annual mean summertime (June-July-August) shortwave down/upward radiation (swsd/swsu; W m-2), longwave down/upward radiation (lwsd/lwsu; W m-2), surface albedo (alb; unitless) and cloud content (qci; kg m-2) modelled by RACMO2.3p2 at 5.5 km spatial resolution for the period 1958-2017.1 km data: annual cumulative meltwater runoff (kg m-2 or mm w.e.) modelled by RACMO2.3p2 at 5.5 km resolution and further statistically downscaled to 1 km for the period 1958-2017. Annual maximum bare ice extent (unitless) remotely sensed by MODIS at 1 km spatial resolution for the period 2000-2018. Mask file at 1 km resolution including longitude/latitude coordinates and outlines of the seven Greenland ice sheet sectors investigated in the study.Additional RACMO2.3p2 data, including daily downscaled surface mass balance (SMB) components at 1 km and modelled climate variables at 5.5 km resolution, are freely available from the authors upon request and without conditions. To submit a request, please contact Brice Noël: mailto:b.p.y.noel@uu.nl. Dataset albedo Arctic Greenland Ice Sheet North Greenland DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Arctic Brice ENVELOPE(-72.600,-72.600,-75.368,-75.368) Greenland |
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DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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language |
English |
topic |
RACMO File name File format File size Uniform resource locator/link to file |
spellingShingle |
RACMO File name File format File size Uniform resource locator/link to file Noël, Brice P Y Rapid ablation zone expansion amplifies north Greenland mass loss: modelled (RACMO2) and observed (MODIS) data sets |
topic_facet |
RACMO File name File format File size Uniform resource locator/link to file |
description |
Since the early 1990s, the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) has been losing mass at an accelerating rate, primarily due to enhanced meltwater runoff following an atmospheric warming of ~1ºC. Here we show that a pronounced latitudinal contrast exists in the GrIS response to recent warming. The ablation area in north Greenland expanded by 46%, almost twice as much as in the south (+25%), significantly increasing the relative contribution of the north to total GrIS mass loss. This latitudinal contrast originates from a different response to the recent change in large-scale Arctic summertime atmospheric circulation, promoting southwesterly advection of warm air towards the GrIS. In the southwest, persistent high atmospheric pressure reduced cloudiness, increasing runoff through enhanced absorption of solar radiation; in contrast, increased early-summer cloudiness in north Greenland enhanced atmospheric warming through decreased longwave heat loss. This triggered a rapid snowline retreat, causing early bare ice exposure, amplifying northern runoff.The data set includes:5.5 km data: annual mean summertime (June-July-August) shortwave down/upward radiation (swsd/swsu; W m-2), longwave down/upward radiation (lwsd/lwsu; W m-2), surface albedo (alb; unitless) and cloud content (qci; kg m-2) modelled by RACMO2.3p2 at 5.5 km spatial resolution for the period 1958-2017.1 km data: annual cumulative meltwater runoff (kg m-2 or mm w.e.) modelled by RACMO2.3p2 at 5.5 km resolution and further statistically downscaled to 1 km for the period 1958-2017. Annual maximum bare ice extent (unitless) remotely sensed by MODIS at 1 km spatial resolution for the period 2000-2018. Mask file at 1 km resolution including longitude/latitude coordinates and outlines of the seven Greenland ice sheet sectors investigated in the study.Additional RACMO2.3p2 data, including daily downscaled surface mass balance (SMB) components at 1 km and modelled climate variables at 5.5 km resolution, are freely available from the authors upon request and without conditions. To submit a request, please contact Brice Noël: mailto:b.p.y.noel@uu.nl. |
format |
Dataset |
author |
Noël, Brice P Y |
author_facet |
Noël, Brice P Y |
author_sort |
Noël, Brice P Y |
title |
Rapid ablation zone expansion amplifies north Greenland mass loss: modelled (RACMO2) and observed (MODIS) data sets |
title_short |
Rapid ablation zone expansion amplifies north Greenland mass loss: modelled (RACMO2) and observed (MODIS) data sets |
title_full |
Rapid ablation zone expansion amplifies north Greenland mass loss: modelled (RACMO2) and observed (MODIS) data sets |
title_fullStr |
Rapid ablation zone expansion amplifies north Greenland mass loss: modelled (RACMO2) and observed (MODIS) data sets |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rapid ablation zone expansion amplifies north Greenland mass loss: modelled (RACMO2) and observed (MODIS) data sets |
title_sort |
rapid ablation zone expansion amplifies north greenland mass loss: modelled (racmo2) and observed (modis) data sets |
publisher |
PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.904428 https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.904428 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-72.600,-72.600,-75.368,-75.368) |
geographic |
Arctic Brice Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Brice Greenland |
genre |
albedo Arctic Greenland Ice Sheet North Greenland |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Greenland Ice Sheet North Greenland |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.904428 |
_version_ |
1766250282393534464 |