Recent ice mass loss in northwestern Greenland : Results of the GRENE Greenland project and overview of the ArCS project

• Main Authors: Sugiyama, Shin, Tsutaki, Shun, Sakakibara, Daiki, Saito, Jun, Ohashi, Yoshihiko, Katayama, Naoki, Podolskiy, Evgeny, Matoba, Sumito, Funk, Martin, Genco, Riccardo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 低温科学第75巻編集委員会
• Subjects: Greenland; glacier; ice sheet; ice cap; ice-ocean interaction; Arctic; Bowdoin; Qaanaaq; Climate change; Ice cap; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2115/65005; https://doi.org/10.14943/lowtemsci.75.1

The Greenland ice sheet and peripheral ice caps are rapidly losing mass. This mass change has been captured by satellite remote sensing, but more detailed investigations are necessary to understand the spatiotemporal variations and mechanism of the ice loss. It has increased particularly in northwestern Greenland, but in-situ data for northern Greenland are generally sparse. To better understand the ice mass loss in northwestern Greenland, we studied the ice sheet, ice caps and calving glaciers in the Qaanaaq region, as a part of the Green Network of Excellence (GRENE) Arctic Climate Change Research Project. Field and satellite observations were performed to measure the mass loss of the ice caps and calving glaciers in the region. Detailed processes were investigated based on field measurements to understand mechanisms driving the ice loss. The field activities include mass balance monitoring on Qaanaaq Ice Cap since 2012, integrated field observations near the front of Bowdoin Glacier since 2013 and ocean measurements near the calving glaciers. In this contribution, we summarize the results of the GRENE Greenland project, and introduce an overview of the next project to be carried out under the framework of the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability Project (ArCS).