Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry
peer reviewed Greenland's contribution to future sea-level rise remains uncertain and a wide range of upper and lower bounds has been proposed. These predictions depend strongly on how mass loss - which is focused at the termini of marine-terminating outlet glaciers - can penetrate inland to th...
Published in: | Nature Geoscience |
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Online Access: | https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/301904 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/301904/1/Felikson_Ngeo_2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2934 |
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ftorbi:oai:orbi.ulg.ac.be:2268/301904 2024-10-13T14:07:25+00:00 Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry Felikson, Denis Bartholomaus, Timothy C. Catania, Ginny A. Korsgaard, Niels J. Kjær, Kurt H. Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice Van Den Broeke, Michiel Stearns, Leigh A. Shroyer, Emily L. Sutherland, David A. Nash, Jonathan D. 2017-05 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/301904 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/301904/1/Felikson_Ngeo_2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2934 en eng Nature Publishing Group http://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2934.pdf urn:issn:1752-0894 urn:issn:1752-0908 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/301904 info:hdl:2268/301904 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/301904/1/Felikson_Ngeo_2017.pdf doi:10.1038/ngeo2934 open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Nature Geoscience, 10 (5), 366 - 369 (2017-05) 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 2017 ftorbi https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2934 2024-09-27T07:01:57Z peer reviewed Greenland's contribution to future sea-level rise remains uncertain and a wide range of upper and lower bounds has been proposed. These predictions depend strongly on how mass loss - which is focused at the termini of marine-terminating outlet glaciers - can penetrate inland to the ice-sheet interior. Previous studies have shown that, at regional scales, Greenland ice sheet mass loss is correlated with atmospheric and oceanic warming. However, mass loss within individual outlet glacier catchments exhibits unexplained heterogeneity, hindering our ability to project ice-sheet response to future environmental forcing. Using digital elevation model differencing, we spatially resolve the dynamic portion of surface elevation change from 1985 to present within 16 outlet glacier catchments in West Greenland, where significant heterogeneity in ice loss exists. We show that the up-glacier extent of thinning and, thus, mass loss, is limited by glacier geometry. We find that 94% of the total dynamic loss occurs between the terminus and the location where the down-glacier advective speed of a kinematic wave of thinning is at least three times larger than its diffusive speed. This empirical threshold enables the identification of glaciers that are not currently thinning but are most susceptible to future thinning in the coming decades. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland Ice Sheet University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) Greenland Nature Geoscience 10 5 366 369 |
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 Felikson, Denis Bartholomaus, Timothy C. Catania, Ginny A. Korsgaard, Niels J. Kjær, Kurt H. Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice Van Den Broeke, Michiel Stearns, Leigh A. Shroyer, Emily L. Sutherland, David A. Nash, Jonathan D. Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
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 Greenland's contribution to future sea-level rise remains uncertain and a wide range of upper and lower bounds has been proposed. These predictions depend strongly on how mass loss - which is focused at the termini of marine-terminating outlet glaciers - can penetrate inland to the ice-sheet interior. Previous studies have shown that, at regional scales, Greenland ice sheet mass loss is correlated with atmospheric and oceanic warming. However, mass loss within individual outlet glacier catchments exhibits unexplained heterogeneity, hindering our ability to project ice-sheet response to future environmental forcing. Using digital elevation model differencing, we spatially resolve the dynamic portion of surface elevation change from 1985 to present within 16 outlet glacier catchments in West Greenland, where significant heterogeneity in ice loss exists. We show that the up-glacier extent of thinning and, thus, mass loss, is limited by glacier geometry. We find that 94% of the total dynamic loss occurs between the terminus and the location where the down-glacier advective speed of a kinematic wave of thinning is at least three times larger than its diffusive speed. This empirical threshold enables the identification of glaciers that are not currently thinning but are most susceptible to future thinning in the coming decades. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Felikson, Denis Bartholomaus, Timothy C. Catania, Ginny A. Korsgaard, Niels J. Kjær, Kurt H. Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice Van Den Broeke, Michiel Stearns, Leigh A. Shroyer, Emily L. Sutherland, David A. Nash, Jonathan D. |
author_facet |
Felikson, Denis Bartholomaus, Timothy C. Catania, Ginny A. Korsgaard, Niels J. Kjær, Kurt H. Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice Van Den Broeke, Michiel Stearns, Leigh A. Shroyer, Emily L. Sutherland, David A. Nash, Jonathan D. |
author_sort |
Felikson, Denis |
title |
Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
title_short |
Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
title_full |
Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
title_fullStr |
Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
title_full_unstemmed |
Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
title_sort |
inland thinning on the greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/301904 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/301904/1/Felikson_Ngeo_2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2934 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Nature Geoscience, 10 (5), 366 - 369 (2017-05) |
op_relation |
http://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2934.pdf urn:issn:1752-0894 urn:issn:1752-0908 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/301904 info:hdl:2268/301904 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/301904/1/Felikson_Ngeo_2017.pdf doi:10.1038/ngeo2934 |
op_rights |
open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2934 |
container_title |
Nature Geoscience |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
366 |
op_container_end_page |
369 |
_version_ |
1812813708218335232 |