Testing hypotheses of the cause of peripheral thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet: is land-terminating ice thinning at anomalously high rates?
Recent observations have shown that the periphery of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is thinning rapidly and that this thinning is greatest around marine-terminating outlet glaciers. Several theories have been proposed which provide a link between climate and ice thinning. We present surface elevatio...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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2008
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1983/fdbdb45d-c846-4449-90c9-a3f608d76056 https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/fdbdb45d-c846-4449-90c9-a3f608d76056 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2-205-2008 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/2/205/2008/tc-2-205-2008.html |
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ftubristolcris:oai:research-information.bris.ac.uk:publications/fdbdb45d-c846-4449-90c9-a3f608d76056 2024-01-28T10:04:11+01:00 Testing hypotheses of the cause of peripheral thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet: is land-terminating ice thinning at anomalously high rates? Sole, AJ Payne, AJ Bamber, JL Nienow, P Krabill, W 2008 https://hdl.handle.net/1983/fdbdb45d-c846-4449-90c9-a3f608d76056 https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/fdbdb45d-c846-4449-90c9-a3f608d76056 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2-205-2008 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/2/205/2008/tc-2-205-2008.html eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Sole , AJ , Payne , AJ , Bamber , JL , Nienow , P & Krabill , W 2008 , ' Testing hypotheses of the cause of peripheral thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet: is land-terminating ice thinning at anomalously high rates? ' , Cryosphere , vol. 2 , pp. 205 - 218 . https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2-205-2008 article 2008 ftubristolcris https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2-205-2008 2024-01-04T23:32:40Z Recent observations have shown that the periphery of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is thinning rapidly and that this thinning is greatest around marine-terminating outlet glaciers. Several theories have been proposed which provide a link between climate and ice thinning. We present surface elevation change dh/dt data from NASA's Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA) laser altimetry surveys for fourteen and eleven of the largest outlet glaciers in Southern Greenland from 1993 to 1998 and 1998 to 2006 respectively to test the applicability of these theories to the GrIS. Initially, outlet glacier dh/dt data are compared with data from concurrent surveys over inland ice (slow flowing ice that is not obviously draining into an outlet glacier) to confirm the effect of ice flow on surface thinning rates. Land-terminating and marine-terminating outlet glacier dh/dt data are then compared from 1993 to 1998 and from 1998 to 2006. Finally, ablation anomalies (the difference between the "normal" ablation rate from 1970 to 2000 and the ablation rate in the time period of interest) calculated with a positive degree day model are compared to both marine-terminating and land-terminating outlet glacier dh/dt data. Our results support earlier conclusions that certain marine-terminating outlet glaciers have thinned much more than land-terminating outlet glaciers during both time periods. Furthermore we show that these differences are not limited to the largest, fastest-flowing outlet glaciers - almost all marine-terminating outlet glaciers are thinning more than land-terminating outlet glaciers. There was a four fold increase in mean marine-terminating outlet glacier thinning rates below 1000 m elevation between the periods 1993 to 1998 and 1998 to 2006, while thinning rates of land-terminating outlet glaciers remained statistically unchanged. This suggests that a change in a controlling mechanism specific to the thinning rates of marine-terminating outlet glaciers occurred in the late 1990s and that this change ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Regional Climate Assessment glacier Greenland Ice Sheet PARCA Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment University of Bristol: Bristol Research Arctic Greenland The Cryosphere 2 2 205 218 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Bristol: Bristol Research |
op_collection_id |
ftubristolcris |
language |
English |
description |
Recent observations have shown that the periphery of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is thinning rapidly and that this thinning is greatest around marine-terminating outlet glaciers. Several theories have been proposed which provide a link between climate and ice thinning. We present surface elevation change dh/dt data from NASA's Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA) laser altimetry surveys for fourteen and eleven of the largest outlet glaciers in Southern Greenland from 1993 to 1998 and 1998 to 2006 respectively to test the applicability of these theories to the GrIS. Initially, outlet glacier dh/dt data are compared with data from concurrent surveys over inland ice (slow flowing ice that is not obviously draining into an outlet glacier) to confirm the effect of ice flow on surface thinning rates. Land-terminating and marine-terminating outlet glacier dh/dt data are then compared from 1993 to 1998 and from 1998 to 2006. Finally, ablation anomalies (the difference between the "normal" ablation rate from 1970 to 2000 and the ablation rate in the time period of interest) calculated with a positive degree day model are compared to both marine-terminating and land-terminating outlet glacier dh/dt data. Our results support earlier conclusions that certain marine-terminating outlet glaciers have thinned much more than land-terminating outlet glaciers during both time periods. Furthermore we show that these differences are not limited to the largest, fastest-flowing outlet glaciers - almost all marine-terminating outlet glaciers are thinning more than land-terminating outlet glaciers. There was a four fold increase in mean marine-terminating outlet glacier thinning rates below 1000 m elevation between the periods 1993 to 1998 and 1998 to 2006, while thinning rates of land-terminating outlet glaciers remained statistically unchanged. This suggests that a change in a controlling mechanism specific to the thinning rates of marine-terminating outlet glaciers occurred in the late 1990s and that this change ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sole, AJ Payne, AJ Bamber, JL Nienow, P Krabill, W |
spellingShingle |
Sole, AJ Payne, AJ Bamber, JL Nienow, P Krabill, W Testing hypotheses of the cause of peripheral thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet: is land-terminating ice thinning at anomalously high rates? |
author_facet |
Sole, AJ Payne, AJ Bamber, JL Nienow, P Krabill, W |
author_sort |
Sole, AJ |
title |
Testing hypotheses of the cause of peripheral thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet: is land-terminating ice thinning at anomalously high rates? |
title_short |
Testing hypotheses of the cause of peripheral thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet: is land-terminating ice thinning at anomalously high rates? |
title_full |
Testing hypotheses of the cause of peripheral thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet: is land-terminating ice thinning at anomalously high rates? |
title_fullStr |
Testing hypotheses of the cause of peripheral thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet: is land-terminating ice thinning at anomalously high rates? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Testing hypotheses of the cause of peripheral thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet: is land-terminating ice thinning at anomalously high rates? |
title_sort |
testing hypotheses of the cause of peripheral thinning of the greenland ice sheet: is land-terminating ice thinning at anomalously high rates? |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1983/fdbdb45d-c846-4449-90c9-a3f608d76056 https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/fdbdb45d-c846-4449-90c9-a3f608d76056 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2-205-2008 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/2/205/2008/tc-2-205-2008.html |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Regional Climate Assessment glacier Greenland Ice Sheet PARCA Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Regional Climate Assessment glacier Greenland Ice Sheet PARCA Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment |
op_source |
Sole , AJ , Payne , AJ , Bamber , JL , Nienow , P & Krabill , W 2008 , ' Testing hypotheses of the cause of peripheral thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet: is land-terminating ice thinning at anomalously high rates? ' , Cryosphere , vol. 2 , pp. 205 - 218 . https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2-205-2008 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2-205-2008 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
2 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
205 |
op_container_end_page |
218 |
_version_ |
1789329774901985280 |