Amplified melt and flow of the Greenland ice sheet driven by late-summer cyclonic rainfall
Intense rainfall events significantly affect Alpine and Alaskan glaciers through enhanced melting, ice-flow acceleration and subglacial sediment erosion, yet their impact on the Greenland ice sheet has not been assessed. Here we present measurements of ice velocity, subglacial water pressure and met...
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ftunivutrecht:oai:dspace.library.uu.nl:1874/321802 2023-07-23T04:19:26+02:00 Amplified melt and flow of the Greenland ice sheet driven by late-summer cyclonic rainfall Doyle, Samuel H. Hubbard, Alun Van De Wal, Roderik S W Box, Jason E. Van As, Dirk Scharrer, Kilian Meierbachtol, Toby W. Smeets, Paul C J P Harper, Joel T. Johansson, Emma Mottram, Ruth H. Mikkelsen, Andreas B. Wilhelms, Frank Patton, Henry Christoffersen, Poul Hubbard, Bryn Sub Dynamics Meteorology Climate and environment Marine and Atmospheric Research 2015-08-01 application/pdf https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/321802 en eng 1752-0894 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/321802 info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess Taverne Earth and Planetary Sciences(all) Article 2015 ftunivutrecht 2023-07-02T01:30:09Z Intense rainfall events significantly affect Alpine and Alaskan glaciers through enhanced melting, ice-flow acceleration and subglacial sediment erosion, yet their impact on the Greenland ice sheet has not been assessed. Here we present measurements of ice velocity, subglacial water pressure and meteorological variables from the western margin of the Greenland ice sheet during a week of warm, wet cyclonic weather in late August and early September 2011. We find that extreme surface runoff from melt and rainfall led to a widespread acceleration in ice flow that extended 140 km into the ice-sheet interior. We suggest that the late-season timing was critical in promoting rapid runoff across an extensive bare ice surface that overwhelmed a subglacial hydrological system in transition to a less-efficient winter mode. Reanalysis data reveal that similar cyclonic weather conditions prevailed across southern and western Greenland during this time, and we observe a corresponding ice-flow response at all land- and marine-terminating glaciers in these regions for which data are available. Given that the advection of warm, moist air masses and rainfall over Greenland is expected to become more frequent in the coming decades, our findings portend a previously unforeseen vulnerability of the Greenland ice sheet to climate change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet Utrecht University Repository Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Utrecht University Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivutrecht |
language |
English |
topic |
Taverne Earth and Planetary Sciences(all) |
spellingShingle |
Taverne Earth and Planetary Sciences(all) Doyle, Samuel H. Hubbard, Alun Van De Wal, Roderik S W Box, Jason E. Van As, Dirk Scharrer, Kilian Meierbachtol, Toby W. Smeets, Paul C J P Harper, Joel T. Johansson, Emma Mottram, Ruth H. Mikkelsen, Andreas B. Wilhelms, Frank Patton, Henry Christoffersen, Poul Hubbard, Bryn Amplified melt and flow of the Greenland ice sheet driven by late-summer cyclonic rainfall |
topic_facet |
Taverne Earth and Planetary Sciences(all) |
description |
Intense rainfall events significantly affect Alpine and Alaskan glaciers through enhanced melting, ice-flow acceleration and subglacial sediment erosion, yet their impact on the Greenland ice sheet has not been assessed. Here we present measurements of ice velocity, subglacial water pressure and meteorological variables from the western margin of the Greenland ice sheet during a week of warm, wet cyclonic weather in late August and early September 2011. We find that extreme surface runoff from melt and rainfall led to a widespread acceleration in ice flow that extended 140 km into the ice-sheet interior. We suggest that the late-season timing was critical in promoting rapid runoff across an extensive bare ice surface that overwhelmed a subglacial hydrological system in transition to a less-efficient winter mode. Reanalysis data reveal that similar cyclonic weather conditions prevailed across southern and western Greenland during this time, and we observe a corresponding ice-flow response at all land- and marine-terminating glaciers in these regions for which data are available. Given that the advection of warm, moist air masses and rainfall over Greenland is expected to become more frequent in the coming decades, our findings portend a previously unforeseen vulnerability of the Greenland ice sheet to climate change. |
author2 |
Sub Dynamics Meteorology Climate and environment Marine and Atmospheric Research |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Doyle, Samuel H. Hubbard, Alun Van De Wal, Roderik S W Box, Jason E. Van As, Dirk Scharrer, Kilian Meierbachtol, Toby W. Smeets, Paul C J P Harper, Joel T. Johansson, Emma Mottram, Ruth H. Mikkelsen, Andreas B. Wilhelms, Frank Patton, Henry Christoffersen, Poul Hubbard, Bryn |
author_facet |
Doyle, Samuel H. Hubbard, Alun Van De Wal, Roderik S W Box, Jason E. Van As, Dirk Scharrer, Kilian Meierbachtol, Toby W. Smeets, Paul C J P Harper, Joel T. Johansson, Emma Mottram, Ruth H. Mikkelsen, Andreas B. Wilhelms, Frank Patton, Henry Christoffersen, Poul Hubbard, Bryn |
author_sort |
Doyle, Samuel H. |
title |
Amplified melt and flow of the Greenland ice sheet driven by late-summer cyclonic rainfall |
title_short |
Amplified melt and flow of the Greenland ice sheet driven by late-summer cyclonic rainfall |
title_full |
Amplified melt and flow of the Greenland ice sheet driven by late-summer cyclonic rainfall |
title_fullStr |
Amplified melt and flow of the Greenland ice sheet driven by late-summer cyclonic rainfall |
title_full_unstemmed |
Amplified melt and flow of the Greenland ice sheet driven by late-summer cyclonic rainfall |
title_sort |
amplified melt and flow of the greenland ice sheet driven by late-summer cyclonic rainfall |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/321802 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
1752-0894 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/321802 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
_version_ |
1772182525664296960 |