Atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional Greenland ice sheet surface melt in summer 2012
peer reviewed The NASA announcement of record surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet in July 2012 led us to examine the atmospheric and oceanic climatic anomalies that are likely to have contributed to these exceptional conditions and also to ask the question of how unusual these anomalies were...
Published in: | International Journal of Climatology |
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Online Access: | https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/150518 https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3743 |
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ftorbi:oai:orbi.ulg.ac.be:2268/150518 2024-04-21T08:03:12+00:00 Atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional Greenland ice sheet surface melt in summer 2012 Hanna, E. Fettweis, Xavier Mernild, S. Cappelen, J. Ribergaard, M. Shuman, C. Steffen, K. Wood, L. Mote, T. 2013-06-14 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/150518 https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3743 en eng John Wiley & Sons Ltd. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joc.3743/abstract urn:issn:0899-8418 urn:issn:1097-0088 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/150518 info:hdl:2268/150518 doi:10.1002/joc.3743 scopus-id:2-s2.0-84900602532 restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess International Journal of Climatology, 34 (4), 1022–1037 (2013-06-14) Physical chemical mathematical & earth Sciences Earth sciences & physical geography Physique chimie mathématiques & sciences de la terre Sciences de la terre & géographie physique journal article http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 info:eu-repo/semantics/article peer reviewed 2013 ftorbi https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3743 2024-03-27T14:56:39Z peer reviewed The NASA announcement of record surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet in July 2012 led us to examine the atmospheric and oceanic climatic anomalies that are likely to have contributed to these exceptional conditions and also to ask the question of how unusual these anomalies were compared to available records. Our analysis allows us to assess the relative contributions of these two key influences to both the extreme melt event and ongoing climate change. In 2012, as in recent warm summers since 2007, a blocking high pressure feature, associated with negative NAO conditions, was present in the mid-troposphere over Greenland for much of the summer. This circulation pattern advected relatively warm southerly winds over the western flank of the ice sheet, forming a ‘heat dome’ over Greenland that led to the widespread surface melting. Both sea-surface temperature and sea-ice cover anomalies seem to have played a minimal role in this record melt, relative to atmospheric circulation. Two representative coastal climatological station averages and several individual stations in south, west and north-west Greenland set new surface air temperature records for May, June, July and the whole (JJA) summer. The unusually warm summer 2012 conditions extended to the top of the ice sheet at Summit, where our reanalysed (1994–2012) DMI Summit weather station summer (JJA) temperature series set new record high mean and extreme temperatures in 2012; 3-hourly instantaneous 2-m temperatures reached an exceptional value of 2.2°C at Summit on 11 July 2012. These conditions translated into the record observed ice-sheet wide melt during summer 2012. However, 2012 seems not to be climatically representative of future ‘average’ summers projected this century. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet Sea ice University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) International Journal of Climatology 34 4 1022 1037 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) |
op_collection_id |
ftorbi |
language |
English |
topic |
Physical chemical mathematical & earth Sciences Earth sciences & physical geography Physique chimie mathématiques & sciences de la terre Sciences de la terre & géographie physique |
spellingShingle |
Physical chemical mathematical & earth Sciences Earth sciences & physical geography Physique chimie mathématiques & sciences de la terre Sciences de la terre & géographie physique Hanna, E. Fettweis, Xavier Mernild, S. Cappelen, J. Ribergaard, M. Shuman, C. Steffen, K. Wood, L. Mote, T. Atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional Greenland ice sheet surface melt in summer 2012 |
topic_facet |
Physical chemical mathematical & earth Sciences Earth sciences & physical geography Physique chimie mathématiques & sciences de la terre Sciences de la terre & géographie physique |
description |
peer reviewed The NASA announcement of record surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet in July 2012 led us to examine the atmospheric and oceanic climatic anomalies that are likely to have contributed to these exceptional conditions and also to ask the question of how unusual these anomalies were compared to available records. Our analysis allows us to assess the relative contributions of these two key influences to both the extreme melt event and ongoing climate change. In 2012, as in recent warm summers since 2007, a blocking high pressure feature, associated with negative NAO conditions, was present in the mid-troposphere over Greenland for much of the summer. This circulation pattern advected relatively warm southerly winds over the western flank of the ice sheet, forming a ‘heat dome’ over Greenland that led to the widespread surface melting. Both sea-surface temperature and sea-ice cover anomalies seem to have played a minimal role in this record melt, relative to atmospheric circulation. Two representative coastal climatological station averages and several individual stations in south, west and north-west Greenland set new surface air temperature records for May, June, July and the whole (JJA) summer. The unusually warm summer 2012 conditions extended to the top of the ice sheet at Summit, where our reanalysed (1994–2012) DMI Summit weather station summer (JJA) temperature series set new record high mean and extreme temperatures in 2012; 3-hourly instantaneous 2-m temperatures reached an exceptional value of 2.2°C at Summit on 11 July 2012. These conditions translated into the record observed ice-sheet wide melt during summer 2012. However, 2012 seems not to be climatically representative of future ‘average’ summers projected this century. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hanna, E. Fettweis, Xavier Mernild, S. Cappelen, J. Ribergaard, M. Shuman, C. Steffen, K. Wood, L. Mote, T. |
author_facet |
Hanna, E. Fettweis, Xavier Mernild, S. Cappelen, J. Ribergaard, M. Shuman, C. Steffen, K. Wood, L. Mote, T. |
author_sort |
Hanna, E. |
title |
Atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional Greenland ice sheet surface melt in summer 2012 |
title_short |
Atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional Greenland ice sheet surface melt in summer 2012 |
title_full |
Atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional Greenland ice sheet surface melt in summer 2012 |
title_fullStr |
Atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional Greenland ice sheet surface melt in summer 2012 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional Greenland ice sheet surface melt in summer 2012 |
title_sort |
atmospheric and oceanic climate forcing of the exceptional greenland ice sheet surface melt in summer 2012 |
publisher |
John Wiley & Sons Ltd. |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/150518 https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3743 |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet Sea ice |
op_source |
International Journal of Climatology, 34 (4), 1022–1037 (2013-06-14) |
op_relation |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joc.3743/abstract urn:issn:0899-8418 urn:issn:1097-0088 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/150518 info:hdl:2268/150518 doi:10.1002/joc.3743 scopus-id:2-s2.0-84900602532 |
op_rights |
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3743 |
container_title |
International Journal of Climatology |
container_volume |
34 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1022 |
op_container_end_page |
1037 |
_version_ |
1796943144949907456 |