Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry
Greenland's contribution to future sea-level rise remains uncertain and a wide range of upper and lower bounds has been proposed. These predictions depend strongly on how mass loss - which is focused at the termini of marine-terminating outlet glaciers - can penetrate inland to the ice-sheet in...
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ftunivutrecht:oai:dspace.library.uu.nl:1874/356716 2023-11-12T04:17:25+01:00 Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry Felikson, Denis Bartholomaus, Timothy C. Catania, Ginny A. Korsgaard, Niels J. Kjær, Kurt H. Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice Van Den Broeke, Michiel Stearns, Leigh A. Shroyer, Emily L. Sutherland, David A. Nash, Jonathan D. Sub Dynamics Meteorology Marine and Atmospheric Research 2017-05-01 application/pdf https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/356716 en eng 1752-0894 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/356716 info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess Taverne Earth and Planetary Sciences(all) Article 2017 ftunivutrecht 2023-11-01T23:14:35Z Greenland's contribution to future sea-level rise remains uncertain and a wide range of upper and lower bounds has been proposed. These predictions depend strongly on how mass loss - which is focused at the termini of marine-terminating outlet glaciers - can penetrate inland to the ice-sheet interior. Previous studies have shown that, at regional scales, Greenland ice sheet mass loss is correlated with atmospheric and oceanic warming. However, mass loss within individual outlet glacier catchments exhibits unexplained heterogeneity, hindering our ability to project ice-sheet response to future environmental forcing. Using digital elevation model differencing, we spatially resolve the dynamic portion of surface elevation change from 1985 to present within 16 outlet glacier catchments in West Greenland, where significant heterogeneity in ice loss exists. We show that the up-glacier extent of thinning and, thus, mass loss, is limited by glacier geometry. We find that 94% of the total dynamic loss occurs between the terminus and the location where the down-glacier advective speed of a kinematic wave of thinning is at least three times larger than its diffusive speed. This empirical threshold enables the identification of glaciers that are not currently thinning but are most susceptible to future thinning in the coming decades. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier 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) Felikson, Denis Bartholomaus, Timothy C. Catania, Ginny A. Korsgaard, Niels J. Kjær, Kurt H. Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice Van Den Broeke, Michiel Stearns, Leigh A. Shroyer, Emily L. Sutherland, David A. Nash, Jonathan D. Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
topic_facet |
Taverne Earth and Planetary Sciences(all) |
description |
Greenland's contribution to future sea-level rise remains uncertain and a wide range of upper and lower bounds has been proposed. These predictions depend strongly on how mass loss - which is focused at the termini of marine-terminating outlet glaciers - can penetrate inland to the ice-sheet interior. Previous studies have shown that, at regional scales, Greenland ice sheet mass loss is correlated with atmospheric and oceanic warming. However, mass loss within individual outlet glacier catchments exhibits unexplained heterogeneity, hindering our ability to project ice-sheet response to future environmental forcing. Using digital elevation model differencing, we spatially resolve the dynamic portion of surface elevation change from 1985 to present within 16 outlet glacier catchments in West Greenland, where significant heterogeneity in ice loss exists. We show that the up-glacier extent of thinning and, thus, mass loss, is limited by glacier geometry. We find that 94% of the total dynamic loss occurs between the terminus and the location where the down-glacier advective speed of a kinematic wave of thinning is at least three times larger than its diffusive speed. This empirical threshold enables the identification of glaciers that are not currently thinning but are most susceptible to future thinning in the coming decades. |
author2 |
Sub Dynamics Meteorology Marine and Atmospheric Research |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Felikson, Denis Bartholomaus, Timothy C. Catania, Ginny A. Korsgaard, Niels J. Kjær, Kurt H. Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice Van Den Broeke, Michiel Stearns, Leigh A. Shroyer, Emily L. Sutherland, David A. Nash, Jonathan D. |
author_facet |
Felikson, Denis Bartholomaus, Timothy C. Catania, Ginny A. Korsgaard, Niels J. Kjær, Kurt H. Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice Van Den Broeke, Michiel Stearns, Leigh A. Shroyer, Emily L. Sutherland, David A. Nash, Jonathan D. |
author_sort |
Felikson, Denis |
title |
Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
title_short |
Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
title_full |
Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
title_fullStr |
Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
title_full_unstemmed |
Inland thinning on the Greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
title_sort |
inland thinning on the greenland ice sheet controlled by outlet glacier geometry |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/356716 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
1752-0894 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/356716 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
_version_ |
1782334324639531008 |