Seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet
Supraglacial lakes and rivers dominate the storage and transport of meltwater on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) surface. Despite functioning as interconnected hydrologic networks, supraglacial lakes and rivers are commonly studied as independent features, resulting in an incomplete underst...
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Cambridge University Press
2021
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:85536a934e4f4edf940981123faa0602 2023-05-15T16:28:06+02:00 Seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet Kang Yang Laurence C. Smith Matthew G. Cooper Lincoln H. Pitcher Dirk van As Yao Lu Xin Lu Manchun Li 2021-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.10 https://doaj.org/article/85536a934e4f4edf940981123faa0602 EN eng Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143021000101/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2021.10 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/85536a934e4f4edf940981123faa0602 Journal of Glaciology, Vol 67, Pp 592-602 (2021) climate models ice-sheet hydrology remote sensing supraglacial lakes supraglacial rivers surface mass balance Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.10 2023-03-12T01:30:57Z Supraglacial lakes and rivers dominate the storage and transport of meltwater on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) surface. Despite functioning as interconnected hydrologic networks, supraglacial lakes and rivers are commonly studied as independent features, resulting in an incomplete understanding of their collective impact on meltwater storage and routing. We use Landsat 8 satellite imagery to assess the seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest GrIS during the 2015 melt season. Remotely sensed meltwater areas and volumes are compared with surface runoff simulations from three climate models (MERRA-2, MAR 3.6 and RACMO 2.3), and with in situ observations of proglacial discharge in the Watson River. We find: (1) at elevations >1600 m, 21% of supraglacial lakes and 28% of supraglacial rivers drain into moulins, signifying the presence of high-elevation surface-to-bed meltwater connections even during a colder-than-average melt season; (2) while supraglacial lakes dominate instantaneous surface meltwater storage, supraglacial rivers dominate total surface meltwater area and discharge; (3) the combined surface area of supraglacial lakes and rivers is strongly correlated with modeled surface runoff; and (4) of the three models examined here, MERRA-2 runoff yields the highest overall correlation with observed proglacial discharge in the Watson River. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet Journal of Glaciology Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Greenland Merra ENVELOPE(12.615,12.615,65.816,65.816) Journal of Glaciology 67 264 592 602 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
climate models ice-sheet hydrology remote sensing supraglacial lakes supraglacial rivers surface mass balance Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
climate models ice-sheet hydrology remote sensing supraglacial lakes supraglacial rivers surface mass balance Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 Kang Yang Laurence C. Smith Matthew G. Cooper Lincoln H. Pitcher Dirk van As Yao Lu Xin Lu Manchun Li Seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet |
topic_facet |
climate models ice-sheet hydrology remote sensing supraglacial lakes supraglacial rivers surface mass balance Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
Supraglacial lakes and rivers dominate the storage and transport of meltwater on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) surface. Despite functioning as interconnected hydrologic networks, supraglacial lakes and rivers are commonly studied as independent features, resulting in an incomplete understanding of their collective impact on meltwater storage and routing. We use Landsat 8 satellite imagery to assess the seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest GrIS during the 2015 melt season. Remotely sensed meltwater areas and volumes are compared with surface runoff simulations from three climate models (MERRA-2, MAR 3.6 and RACMO 2.3), and with in situ observations of proglacial discharge in the Watson River. We find: (1) at elevations >1600 m, 21% of supraglacial lakes and 28% of supraglacial rivers drain into moulins, signifying the presence of high-elevation surface-to-bed meltwater connections even during a colder-than-average melt season; (2) while supraglacial lakes dominate instantaneous surface meltwater storage, supraglacial rivers dominate total surface meltwater area and discharge; (3) the combined surface area of supraglacial lakes and rivers is strongly correlated with modeled surface runoff; and (4) of the three models examined here, MERRA-2 runoff yields the highest overall correlation with observed proglacial discharge in the Watson River. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kang Yang Laurence C. Smith Matthew G. Cooper Lincoln H. Pitcher Dirk van As Yao Lu Xin Lu Manchun Li |
author_facet |
Kang Yang Laurence C. Smith Matthew G. Cooper Lincoln H. Pitcher Dirk van As Yao Lu Xin Lu Manchun Li |
author_sort |
Kang Yang |
title |
Seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_short |
Seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_full |
Seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_fullStr |
Seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_sort |
seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes and rivers on the southwest greenland ice sheet |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.10 https://doaj.org/article/85536a934e4f4edf940981123faa0602 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(12.615,12.615,65.816,65.816) |
geographic |
Greenland Merra |
geographic_facet |
Greenland Merra |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology, Vol 67, Pp 592-602 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143021000101/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2021.10 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/85536a934e4f4edf940981123faa0602 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.10 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
67 |
container_issue |
264 |
container_start_page |
592 |
op_container_end_page |
602 |
_version_ |
1766017732297359360 |