Frontiers in Earth Science / Precipitation trends (1958–2021) on Ammassalik island, south-east Greenland
Along with Arctic warming, climate models project a strong increase in Arctic precipitation in the 21st century as well as an increase in the ratio of liquid to total precipitation. In the precipitation-rich region of south-east Greenland, precipitation changes could locally have significant impacts...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 https://unipub.uni-graz.at/doi/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 https://resolver.obvsg.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubg:3-17132 |
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ftunivgraz:oai:unipub.uni-graz.at:8389342 2023-10-29T02:30:01+01:00 Frontiers in Earth Science / Precipitation trends (1958–2021) on Ammassalik island, south-east Greenland van der Schot, Jorrit Abermann, Jakob Silva, Tiago Jensen, Caroline Drost Noël, Brice Schöner, Wolfgang UG:UB:GR 2023 text/html https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 https://unipub.uni-graz.at/doi/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 https://resolver.obvsg.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubg:3-17132 eng eng Frontiers vignette : https://unipub.uni-graz.at/titlepage/urn/urn:nbn:at:at-ubg:3-17132/128 vignette : https://unipub.uni-graz.at/titlepage/doi/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499/128 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 https://unipub.uni-graz.at/doi/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 urn:nbn:at:at-ubg:3-17132 https://resolver.obvsg.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubg:3-17132 local:99147294937503331 system:AC16834609 cc-by_4 air temperature (AT) climate change Greenland Mittivakkat glacier precipitation RACMO2 rainfall snowfall Text Article 2023 ftunivgraz https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 2023-09-30T18:59:35Z Along with Arctic warming, climate models project a strong increase in Arctic precipitation in the 21st century as well as an increase in the ratio of liquid to total precipitation. In the precipitation-rich region of south-east Greenland, precipitation changes could locally have significant impacts on runoff. However, climate data are sparse in this remote region. This study focuses on improving our understanding of the past precipitation changes on Ammassalik island in south-east Greenland between 1958 and 2021. To assess past changes in air temperature at 2-meter and precipitation, output from a regional polar climate model (RACMO2.3p2) is evaluated with measurements from automatic weather stations in Tasiilaq and on Mittivakkat glacier. In addition, RACMO2.3p2 is used to assess past seasonal changes in air temperature at 2-meter, precipitation amount, precipitation phase and the altitude of the rain/snow boundary. We find that the climate model accurately represents the monthly average observed air temperature at 2-meter. While total precipitation is overestimated, interannual variability of precipitation is properly captured. We report a significant increase of summer temperature at 2-meter of +0.3°C/decade (p<0.01) at Mittivakkat glacier and +0.2°C/decade (p<0.01) in Tasiilaq in 1958–2021. For the subperiod 1990–2019, the trend in annual averages of temperature at 2-meter in Tasiilaq (+0.8°C/decade, p=0.02) corresponds well to known temperature trends on the Greenland Ice Sheet within the same period. On Mittivakkat glacier a significant trend is not detected within this subperiod (+0.2°C/decade, p=0.25). The modelled liquid precipitation ratio on Ammassalik island increased in all summer months (1958–2015) by +2.0/+1.9/+1.8%/decade in June/July/August respectively. In July and August, these trends were stronger at higher elevations. No statistical evidence is found for trends in other seasons. We also identify monthly increases in the altitude of the rain-to-snow boundary (+25/+23/+20 m/decade in ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Ammassalik Arctic Climate change East Greenland glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Tasiilaq Graz University (UGR): Unipub Frontiers in Earth Science 10 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Graz University (UGR): Unipub |
op_collection_id |
ftunivgraz |
language |
English |
topic |
air temperature (AT) climate change Greenland Mittivakkat glacier precipitation RACMO2 rainfall snowfall |
spellingShingle |
air temperature (AT) climate change Greenland Mittivakkat glacier precipitation RACMO2 rainfall snowfall van der Schot, Jorrit Abermann, Jakob Silva, Tiago Jensen, Caroline Drost Noël, Brice Schöner, Wolfgang Frontiers in Earth Science / Precipitation trends (1958–2021) on Ammassalik island, south-east Greenland |
topic_facet |
air temperature (AT) climate change Greenland Mittivakkat glacier precipitation RACMO2 rainfall snowfall |
description |
Along with Arctic warming, climate models project a strong increase in Arctic precipitation in the 21st century as well as an increase in the ratio of liquid to total precipitation. In the precipitation-rich region of south-east Greenland, precipitation changes could locally have significant impacts on runoff. However, climate data are sparse in this remote region. This study focuses on improving our understanding of the past precipitation changes on Ammassalik island in south-east Greenland between 1958 and 2021. To assess past changes in air temperature at 2-meter and precipitation, output from a regional polar climate model (RACMO2.3p2) is evaluated with measurements from automatic weather stations in Tasiilaq and on Mittivakkat glacier. In addition, RACMO2.3p2 is used to assess past seasonal changes in air temperature at 2-meter, precipitation amount, precipitation phase and the altitude of the rain/snow boundary. We find that the climate model accurately represents the monthly average observed air temperature at 2-meter. While total precipitation is overestimated, interannual variability of precipitation is properly captured. We report a significant increase of summer temperature at 2-meter of +0.3°C/decade (p<0.01) at Mittivakkat glacier and +0.2°C/decade (p<0.01) in Tasiilaq in 1958–2021. For the subperiod 1990–2019, the trend in annual averages of temperature at 2-meter in Tasiilaq (+0.8°C/decade, p=0.02) corresponds well to known temperature trends on the Greenland Ice Sheet within the same period. On Mittivakkat glacier a significant trend is not detected within this subperiod (+0.2°C/decade, p=0.25). The modelled liquid precipitation ratio on Ammassalik island increased in all summer months (1958–2015) by +2.0/+1.9/+1.8%/decade in June/July/August respectively. In July and August, these trends were stronger at higher elevations. No statistical evidence is found for trends in other seasons. We also identify monthly increases in the altitude of the rain-to-snow boundary (+25/+23/+20 m/decade in ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
van der Schot, Jorrit Abermann, Jakob Silva, Tiago Jensen, Caroline Drost Noël, Brice Schöner, Wolfgang |
author_facet |
van der Schot, Jorrit Abermann, Jakob Silva, Tiago Jensen, Caroline Drost Noël, Brice Schöner, Wolfgang |
author_sort |
van der Schot, Jorrit |
title |
Frontiers in Earth Science / Precipitation trends (1958–2021) on Ammassalik island, south-east Greenland |
title_short |
Frontiers in Earth Science / Precipitation trends (1958–2021) on Ammassalik island, south-east Greenland |
title_full |
Frontiers in Earth Science / Precipitation trends (1958–2021) on Ammassalik island, south-east Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Frontiers in Earth Science / Precipitation trends (1958–2021) on Ammassalik island, south-east Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Frontiers in Earth Science / Precipitation trends (1958–2021) on Ammassalik island, south-east Greenland |
title_sort |
frontiers in earth science / precipitation trends (1958–2021) on ammassalik island, south-east greenland |
publisher |
Frontiers |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 https://unipub.uni-graz.at/doi/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 https://resolver.obvsg.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubg:3-17132 |
op_coverage |
UG:UB:GR |
genre |
Ammassalik Arctic Climate change East Greenland glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Tasiilaq |
genre_facet |
Ammassalik Arctic Climate change East Greenland glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Tasiilaq |
op_relation |
vignette : https://unipub.uni-graz.at/titlepage/urn/urn:nbn:at:at-ubg:3-17132/128 vignette : https://unipub.uni-graz.at/titlepage/doi/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499/128 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 https://unipub.uni-graz.at/doi/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 urn:nbn:at:at-ubg:3-17132 https://resolver.obvsg.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubg:3-17132 local:99147294937503331 system:AC16834609 |
op_rights |
cc-by_4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.1085499 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Earth Science |
container_volume |
10 |
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1781053714561236992 |