Evidence of Meltwater Retention within the Greenland Ice Sheet ...

• Main Authors: Forster, R. R., Van den Broeke, M. R., Van As, D., Moustafa, Samiah E., Rennermalm, Asa K., Smith, Laurence C., Chu, V. W., Box, J. E.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: European Geosciences Union 2013
• Subjects: Ice sheets > Greenland; Meltwater > Greenland; Greenland; Ice Sheet; Kangerlussuaq
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7282/t3000094; https://scholarship.libraries.rutgers.edu/esploro/outputs/journalArticle/991031549995104646

Greenland ice sheet mass losses have increased in recent decades with more than half of these attributed to surface meltwater runoff. However, the magnitudes of englacial storage, firn retention, internal refreezing and other hydrologic processes that delay or reduce true water export to the global ocean remain less understood, partly due to a scarcity of in situ measurements. Here, ice sheet surface meltwater runoff and proglacial river discharge between 2008 and 2010 near Kangerlussuaq, southwestern Greenland were used to establish sub- and englacial meltwater storage for a small ice sheet watershed (36–64 km2). This watershed lacks significant potential meltwater storage in firn, surface lakes on the ice sheet and in the proglacial area, and receives limited proglacial precipitation. Thus, ice sheet surface runoff not accounted for by river discharge can reasonably be attributed to retention in sub- and englacial storage. Evidence for meltwater storage within the ice sheet includes (1) characteristic ... : NASA Cryosphere Program ...