Efficient meltwater drainage through supraglacial streams and rivers on the southwest Greenland ice sheet

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Smith, Laurence C., Chu, Vena W., Yang, Kang, Gleason, Colin J., Pitcher, Lincoln H., Rennermalm, Asa K., Legleiter, Carl J., Behar, Alberto E., Overstreet, Brandon T., Moustafa, Samiah E., Tedesco, Marco, Forster, Richard R., LeWinter, Adam L., Finnegan, David C., Sheng, Yongwei, Balog, James
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: National Academy of Sciences 2015
• Subjects: Physical Sciences; Greenland; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4313838; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25583477; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1413024112

Meltwater runoff from the Greenland ice sheet is a key contributor to global sea level rise and is expected to increase in the future, but it has received little observational study. We used satellite and in situ technologies to assess surface drainage conditions on the southwestern ablation surface after an extreme 2012 melting event. We conclude that the ice sheet surface is efficiently drained under optimal conditions, that digital elevation models alone cannot fully describe supraglacial drainage and its connection to subglacial systems, and that predicting outflow from climate models alone, without recognition of subglacial processes, may overestimate true meltwater release from the ice sheet.