Greenland surface mass balance derived from climate reanalysis models, 1979-2017

• Main Author: Birkel, Sean
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2018
• Subjects: reanalysis; surface mass balance; Greenland Ice Sheet; Arctic; Greenland; Merra; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.18739/a2513tw18; https://arcticdata.io/catalog/#view/doi:10.18739/A2513TW18

This archive contains monthly gridded files (1979-2012) for an ensemble mean of the third-generation climate models NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), ECMWF European Reanalysis Interim (ERAI), JMA Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA55), and NASA Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) for 2-meter air temperature (t2), precipitation (prcp), mean sea level pressure (mslp), 10-meter wind speed (ws10), and derived net annual surface mass balance (mb). The ensemble mean provides a baseline comparison for how leading reanalysis models reproduce surface mass balance across the Greenland Ice Sheet, as derived from 2-meter temperature and precipitation fields. The archive also includes t2, prcp, and mb from the next generation reanalysis models ECMWF European Reanalysis version 5 (ERA5) (2010-2017) and the OSU Arctic System Reanalysis version 2 (ASR2) (2000-2012). Although the funded project targets the Greenland Ice Sheet, the processed reanalysis meteorological fields are available on the global domain (except for ASR2), and thus may have broader application to climate community researchers. This work was completed at the University of Maine and supported through the NSF collaborative project GreenTrACS (Greenland Traverse for Accumulation and Climate Studies) (Award #1417640). GreenTrACS, which includes field collaborators from Dartmouth College and Boise State University, seeks to better understand the accumulation and climate history of West Greenland.