Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting
The effect of the North Atlantic Ocean on the Greenland Ice Sheet through submarine melting of Greenland's tidewater glacier calving fronts is thought to be a key driver of widespread glacier retreat, dynamic mass loss and sea level contribution from the ice sheet. Despite its critical importan...
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ftunivutrecht:oai:dspace.library.uu.nl:1874/386504 2023-11-12T04:17:26+01:00 Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting Slater, Donald A. Straneo, Fiamma Felikson, Denis Little, Christopher M. Goelzer, Heiko Fettweis, Xavier Holte, James Sub Dynamics Meteorology Marine and Atmospheric Research 2019-09-26 image/pdf https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/386504 en eng 1994-0416 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/386504 info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess Water Science and Technology Earth-Surface Processes Article 2019 ftunivutrecht 2023-11-01T23:21:35Z The effect of the North Atlantic Ocean on the Greenland Ice Sheet through submarine melting of Greenland's tidewater glacier calving fronts is thought to be a key driver of widespread glacier retreat, dynamic mass loss and sea level contribution from the ice sheet. Despite its critical importance, problems of process complexity and scale hinder efforts to represent the influence of submarine melting in ice-sheet-scale models. Here we propose parameterizing tidewater glacier terminus position as a simple linear function of submarine melting, with submarine melting in turn estimated as a function of subglacial discharge and ocean temperature. The relationship is tested, calibrated and validated using datasets of terminus position, subglacial discharge and ocean temperature covering the full ice sheet and surrounding ocean from the period 1960-2018. We demonstrate a statistically significant link between multi-decadal tidewater glacier terminus position change and submarine melting and show that the proposed parameterization has predictive power when considering a population of glaciers. An illustrative 21st century projection is considered, suggesting that tidewater glaciers in Greenland will undergo little further retreat in a low-emission RCP2.6 scenario. In contrast, a high-emission RCP8.5 scenario results in a median retreat of 4.2 km, with a quarter of tidewater glaciers experiencing retreat exceeding 10 km. Our study provides a long-term and ice-sheet-wide assessment of the sensitivity of tidewater glaciers to submarine melting and proposes a practical and empirically validated means of incorporating ocean forcing into models of the Greenland ice sheet. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland Ice Sheet North Atlantic Tidewater Utrecht University Repository Greenland |
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Open Polar |
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Utrecht University Repository |
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ftunivutrecht |
language |
English |
topic |
Water Science and Technology Earth-Surface Processes |
spellingShingle |
Water Science and Technology Earth-Surface Processes Slater, Donald A. Straneo, Fiamma Felikson, Denis Little, Christopher M. Goelzer, Heiko Fettweis, Xavier Holte, James Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
topic_facet |
Water Science and Technology Earth-Surface Processes |
description |
The effect of the North Atlantic Ocean on the Greenland Ice Sheet through submarine melting of Greenland's tidewater glacier calving fronts is thought to be a key driver of widespread glacier retreat, dynamic mass loss and sea level contribution from the ice sheet. Despite its critical importance, problems of process complexity and scale hinder efforts to represent the influence of submarine melting in ice-sheet-scale models. Here we propose parameterizing tidewater glacier terminus position as a simple linear function of submarine melting, with submarine melting in turn estimated as a function of subglacial discharge and ocean temperature. The relationship is tested, calibrated and validated using datasets of terminus position, subglacial discharge and ocean temperature covering the full ice sheet and surrounding ocean from the period 1960-2018. We demonstrate a statistically significant link between multi-decadal tidewater glacier terminus position change and submarine melting and show that the proposed parameterization has predictive power when considering a population of glaciers. An illustrative 21st century projection is considered, suggesting that tidewater glaciers in Greenland will undergo little further retreat in a low-emission RCP2.6 scenario. In contrast, a high-emission RCP8.5 scenario results in a median retreat of 4.2 km, with a quarter of tidewater glaciers experiencing retreat exceeding 10 km. Our study provides a long-term and ice-sheet-wide assessment of the sensitivity of tidewater glaciers to submarine melting and proposes a practical and empirically validated means of incorporating ocean forcing into models of the Greenland ice sheet. |
author2 |
Sub Dynamics Meteorology Marine and Atmospheric Research |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Slater, Donald A. Straneo, Fiamma Felikson, Denis Little, Christopher M. Goelzer, Heiko Fettweis, Xavier Holte, James |
author_facet |
Slater, Donald A. Straneo, Fiamma Felikson, Denis Little, Christopher M. Goelzer, Heiko Fettweis, Xavier Holte, James |
author_sort |
Slater, Donald A. |
title |
Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
title_short |
Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
title_full |
Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
title_fullStr |
Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
title_full_unstemmed |
Estimating Greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
title_sort |
estimating greenland tidewater glacier retreat driven by submarine melting |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/386504 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet North Atlantic Tidewater |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet North Atlantic Tidewater |
op_relation |
1994-0416 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/386504 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
_version_ |
1782334327332274176 |