Hotspots and key periods of Greenland climate change during the past six decades

• Published in: Ambio
• Main Authors: Abermann, Jakob, Hansen, Birger, Lund, Magnus, Wacker, Stefan, Karami, Mojtaba, Cappelen, John
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Greenland; East Greenland; Zackenberg
• Online Access: https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/hotspots-and-key-periods-of-greenland-climate-change-during-the-past-six-decades(30e4a066-547c-476c-b68b-9cf11d21497b).html; https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-016-0861-y; https://pure.au.dk/ws/files/118914084/ambio.pdf

We investigated air temperature and pressure gradients and their trends for the period 1996-2014 in Greenland and compared these to other periods since 1958. Both latitudinal temperature and pressure gradients were strongest during winter. An overall temperature increase up to 0.15 °C year(-1) was observed for 1996-2014. The strongest warming happened during February at the West coast (up to 0.6 °C year(-1)), weaker but consistent and significant warming occurred during summer months (up to 0.3 °C year(-1)) both in West and East Greenland. Pressure trends on a monthly basis were mainly negative, but largely statistically non-significant. Compared with other time windows in the past six decades, the period 1996-2014 yielded an above-average warming trend. Northeast Greenland and the area around Zackenberg follow the general pattern but are on the lower boundary of observed significant trends in Greenland. We conclude that temperature-driven ecosystem changes as observed in Zackenberg may well be exceeded in other areas of Greenland.