Greenland decadal frontal ablation 2000 to 2020 ...

• Main Authors: Kochtitzky, William, Copland, Luke, Hugonnet, Romain, Jiskoot, Hester, Khan, Abbas, King, Michalea, Millan, Romain, Morlighem, Mathieu, Noël, Brice
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Canadian Cryospheric Information Network 2022
• Subjects: glacier; Greenland; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.21963/13272; https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch?doi_id=13272

In Greenland, 87% of the glacierized area ends in the ocean, but mass lost at the ice-ocean interface, or frontal ablation, has not yet been fully quantified for every glacier. We estimate frontal ablation of the 213 outlet and 537 peripheral glaciers of Greenland and find a total frontal ablation of 438.5 ± 7.2 Gt a-1 for 2000-2010 and 466.1 ± 6.2 Gt a-1 for 2010-2020. Ice discharge accounted for 90% and 92% of frontal ablation during these periods, respectively, while volume loss due to terminus retreat comprised the remainder. Only 15 glaciers were responsible for the majority (> 50%) of frontal ablation from 2010 to 2020. These estimates, along with the climatic-basal balance, allow for a more complete accounting of Greenland Ice Sheet and peripheral glacier mass balance. In total, Greenland accounted for 89.5% and 91.1% of northern hemisphere frontal ablation for 2000-2010, and 2010-2020, respectively. Here, we provide the fluxgates, attributes (velocity and thickness) at points along the fluxgates, ... : The main goal of this dataset is to quantify the frontal ablation (mass loss due to iceberg calving, submarine frontal melting, and subaerial frontal melting and sublimation) of all marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland. This dataset was developed by combining velocity, thickness, and area change observations to compute the solid form of glacier mass loss for the first time. These data will help to close the glacier mass budgets in Greenland and are available for use in other studies. ...