Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting
This research has been supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center (postdoctoral program grant), the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs (grant no. 1513396), the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (grant no. 024.002.001), the Fon...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10023/19651 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2489-2019 |
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ftstandrewserep:oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/19651 2023-07-02T03:32:19+02:00 Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting Slater, Donald A. Straneo, Fiamma Felikson, Denis Little, Christopher M. Goelzer, Heiko Fettweis, Xavier Holte, James University of St Andrews. School of Geography & Sustainable Development 2020-03-13T11:30:08Z 21 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10023/19651 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2489-2019 eng eng Cryosphere Slater , D A , Straneo , F , Felikson , D , Little , C M , Goelzer , H , Fettweis , X & Holte , J 2019 , ' Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting ' , Cryosphere , vol. 13 , no. 9 , pp. 2489-2509 . https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2489-2019 1994-0416 PURE: 266866114 PURE UUID: 97223f0a-683c-4381-8b18-2a770b001370 Scopus: 85072714951 ORCID: /0000-0001-8394-6149/work/70619154 http://hdl.handle.net/10023/19651 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2489-2019 © Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed underthe Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License GE Environmental Sciences Water Science and Technology Earth-Surface Processes 3rd-DAS GE Journal article 2020 ftstandrewserep https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2489-2019 2023-06-13T18:26:14Z This research has been supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center (postdoctoral program grant), the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs (grant no. 1513396), the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (grant no. 024.002.001), the Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique – FNRS (grant no. 2.5020.11),the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (grant no. 1117545), the National Science Foundation, Division of Polar Programs (grant no. 1916566), the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs (grant no. 1756272) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (grant no. NNX17AI03G). The effect of the North Atlantic Ocean on the Greenland Ice Sheet through submarine melting of Greenland's tidewater glacier calving fronts is thought to be a key driver of widespread glacier retreat, dynamic mass loss and sea level contribution from the ice sheet. Despite its critical importance, problems of process complexity and scale hinder efforts to represent the influence of submarine melting in ice-sheet-scale models. Here we propose parameterizing tidewater glacier terminus position as a simple linear function of submarine melting, with submarine melting in turn estimated as a function of subglacial discharge and ocean temperature. The relationship is tested, calibrated and validated using datasets of terminus position, subglacial discharge and ocean temperature covering the full ice sheet and surrounding ocean from the period 1960–2018. We demonstrate a statistically significant link between multi-decadal tidewater glacier terminus position change and submarine melting and show that the proposed parameterization has predictive power when considering a population of glaciers. An illustrative 21st century projection is considered, suggesting that tidewater glaciers in Greenland will undergo little further retreat in a low-emission RCP2.6 scenario. In contrast, a high-emission RCP8.5 scenario results in a median retreat of 4.2 km, with a quarter of tidewater ... Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland Ice Sheet National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs North Atlantic Tidewater University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository Greenland The Cryosphere 13 9 2489 2509 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftstandrewserep |
language |
English |
topic |
GE Environmental Sciences Water Science and Technology Earth-Surface Processes 3rd-DAS GE |
spellingShingle |
GE Environmental Sciences Water Science and Technology Earth-Surface Processes 3rd-DAS GE Slater, Donald A. Straneo, Fiamma Felikson, Denis Little, Christopher M. Goelzer, Heiko Fettweis, Xavier Holte, James Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
topic_facet |
GE Environmental Sciences Water Science and Technology Earth-Surface Processes 3rd-DAS GE |
description |
This research has been supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center (postdoctoral program grant), the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs (grant no. 1513396), the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (grant no. 024.002.001), the Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique – FNRS (grant no. 2.5020.11),the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (grant no. 1117545), the National Science Foundation, Division of Polar Programs (grant no. 1916566), the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs (grant no. 1756272) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (grant no. NNX17AI03G). The effect of the North Atlantic Ocean on the Greenland Ice Sheet through submarine melting of Greenland's tidewater glacier calving fronts is thought to be a key driver of widespread glacier retreat, dynamic mass loss and sea level contribution from the ice sheet. Despite its critical importance, problems of process complexity and scale hinder efforts to represent the influence of submarine melting in ice-sheet-scale models. Here we propose parameterizing tidewater glacier terminus position as a simple linear function of submarine melting, with submarine melting in turn estimated as a function of subglacial discharge and ocean temperature. The relationship is tested, calibrated and validated using datasets of terminus position, subglacial discharge and ocean temperature covering the full ice sheet and surrounding ocean from the period 1960–2018. We demonstrate a statistically significant link between multi-decadal tidewater glacier terminus position change and submarine melting and show that the proposed parameterization has predictive power when considering a population of glaciers. An illustrative 21st century projection is considered, suggesting that tidewater glaciers in Greenland will undergo little further retreat in a low-emission RCP2.6 scenario. In contrast, a high-emission RCP8.5 scenario results in a median retreat of 4.2 km, with a quarter of tidewater ... |
author2 |
University of St Andrews. School of Geography & Sustainable Development |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Slater, Donald A. Straneo, Fiamma Felikson, Denis Little, Christopher M. Goelzer, Heiko Fettweis, Xavier Holte, James |
author_facet |
Slater, Donald A. Straneo, Fiamma Felikson, Denis Little, Christopher M. Goelzer, Heiko Fettweis, Xavier Holte, James |
author_sort |
Slater, Donald A. |
title |
Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
title_short |
Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
title_full |
Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
title_fullStr |
Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
title_full_unstemmed |
Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
title_sort |
estimating greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/19651 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2489-2019 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs North Atlantic Tidewater |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs North Atlantic Tidewater |
op_relation |
Cryosphere Slater , D A , Straneo , F , Felikson , D , Little , C M , Goelzer , H , Fettweis , X & Holte , J 2019 , ' Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting ' , Cryosphere , vol. 13 , no. 9 , pp. 2489-2509 . https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2489-2019 1994-0416 PURE: 266866114 PURE UUID: 97223f0a-683c-4381-8b18-2a770b001370 Scopus: 85072714951 ORCID: /0000-0001-8394-6149/work/70619154 http://hdl.handle.net/10023/19651 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2489-2019 |
op_rights |
© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed underthe Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2489-2019 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
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13 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
2489 |
op_container_end_page |
2509 |
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1770271858479857664 |