The recent warming trend in North Greenland

International audience The Arctic is among the fastest warming regions on Earth, but it is also one with limited spatial coverage of multidecadal instrumental surface air temperature measurements. Consequently, atmospheric reanalyses are relatively unconstrained in this region, resulting in a large...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Orsi, Anais, Kawamura, Kenji, Masson-Delmotte, Valérie, Fettweis, Xavier, Box, Jason, Dahl-Jensen, Dorthe, Clow, Gary, Landais, Amaelle, Severinghaus, Jeffrey
Other Authors: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables (GLACCIOS), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO - UC San Diego), University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), University of California (UC)-University of California (UC), National Institute of Polar Research Tokyo (NiPR), Département de Géographie (UCL GEO), Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), Niels Bohr Institute Copenhagen (NBI), Faculty of Science Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH)-University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH), Institute of Arctic Alpine Research University of Colorado Boulder (INSTAAR), University of Colorado Boulder
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2017
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Online Access:https://hal.science/hal-03103991
https://hal.science/hal-03103991/document
https://hal.science/hal-03103991/file/2016GL072212.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL072212
Description
Summary:International audience The Arctic is among the fastest warming regions on Earth, but it is also one with limited spatial coverage of multidecadal instrumental surface air temperature measurements. Consequently, atmospheric reanalyses are relatively unconstrained in this region, resulting in a large spread of estimated 30 year recent warming trends, which limits their use to investigate the mechanisms responsible for this trend. Here we present a surface temperature reconstruction over 1982-2011 at NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling Project, 51 ∘ W, 77 ∘ N), in North Greenland, based on the inversion of borehole temperature and inert gas isotope data. We find that NEEM has warmed by 2.7 ± 0.33 ∘ C over the past 30 years, from the long-term 1900-1970 average of −28.55 ± 0.29 ∘ C. The warming trend is principally caused by an increase in downward longwave heat flux. Atmospheric reanalyses underestimate this trend by 17%, underlining the need for more in situ observations to validate reanalyses.