The firn meltwater Retention Model Intercomparison Project (RetMIP): evaluation of nine firn models at four weather station sites on the Greenland ice sheet
Perennial snow, or firn, covers 80 % of the Greenland ice sheet and has the capacity to retain surface meltwater, influencing the ice sheet mass balance and contribution to sea-level rise. Multilayer firn models are traditionally used to simulate firn processes and estimate meltwater retention. We p...
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ftunivutrecht:oai:dspace.library.uu.nl:1874/409870 2023-12-03T10:23:28+01:00 The firn meltwater Retention Model Intercomparison Project (RetMIP): evaluation of nine firn models at four weather station sites on the Greenland ice sheet Vandecrux, Baptiste Mottram, Ruth H. Langen, Peter L. Fausto, Robert S. Olesen, Martin Stevens, C. Max Verjans, Vincent Leeson, Amber Ligtenberg, S.R.M. Kuipers Munneke, P. Marchenko, Sergey van Pelt, W.J.J. Meyer, Colin R. Simonsen, Sebastian B. Heilig, Achim Samimi, Samira Marshall, Shawn Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Michael Niwano, Masashi Miller, Olivia Voss, Clifford Box, Jason E. Sub Dynamics Meteorology Marine and Atmospheric Research 2020 application/pdf https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/409870 en eng 1994-0416 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/409870 info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess Article 2020 ftunivutrecht 2023-11-08T23:20:02Z Perennial snow, or firn, covers 80 % of the Greenland ice sheet and has the capacity to retain surface meltwater, influencing the ice sheet mass balance and contribution to sea-level rise. Multilayer firn models are traditionally used to simulate firn processes and estimate meltwater retention. We present, intercompare and evaluate outputs from nine firn models at four sites that represent the ice sheet's dry snow, percolation, ice slab and firn aquifer areas. The models are forced by mass and energy fluxes derived from automatic weather stations and compared to firn density, temperature and meltwater percolation depth observations. Models agree relatively well at the dry-snow site while elsewhere their meltwater infiltration schemes lead to marked differences in simulated firn characteristics. Models accounting for deep meltwater percolation overestimate percolation depth and firn temperature at the percolation and ice slab sites but accurately simulate recharge of the firn aquifer. Models using Darcy's law and bucket schemes compare favorably to observed firn temperature and meltwater percolation depth at the percolation site, but only the Darcy models accurately simulate firn temperature and percolation at the ice slab site. Despite good performance at certain locations, no single model currently simulates meltwater infiltration adequately at all sites. The model spread in estimated meltwater retention and runoff increases with increasing meltwater input. The highest runoff was calculated at the KAN_U site in 2012, when average total runoff across models (±2σ) was 353±610 mm w.e. (water equivalent), about 27±48 % of the surface meltwater input. We identify potential causes for the model spread and the mismatch with observations and provide recommendations for future model development and firn investigation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet Utrecht University Repository Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Utrecht University Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivutrecht |
language |
English |
description |
Perennial snow, or firn, covers 80 % of the Greenland ice sheet and has the capacity to retain surface meltwater, influencing the ice sheet mass balance and contribution to sea-level rise. Multilayer firn models are traditionally used to simulate firn processes and estimate meltwater retention. We present, intercompare and evaluate outputs from nine firn models at four sites that represent the ice sheet's dry snow, percolation, ice slab and firn aquifer areas. The models are forced by mass and energy fluxes derived from automatic weather stations and compared to firn density, temperature and meltwater percolation depth observations. Models agree relatively well at the dry-snow site while elsewhere their meltwater infiltration schemes lead to marked differences in simulated firn characteristics. Models accounting for deep meltwater percolation overestimate percolation depth and firn temperature at the percolation and ice slab sites but accurately simulate recharge of the firn aquifer. Models using Darcy's law and bucket schemes compare favorably to observed firn temperature and meltwater percolation depth at the percolation site, but only the Darcy models accurately simulate firn temperature and percolation at the ice slab site. Despite good performance at certain locations, no single model currently simulates meltwater infiltration adequately at all sites. The model spread in estimated meltwater retention and runoff increases with increasing meltwater input. The highest runoff was calculated at the KAN_U site in 2012, when average total runoff across models (±2σ) was 353±610 mm w.e. (water equivalent), about 27±48 % of the surface meltwater input. We identify potential causes for the model spread and the mismatch with observations and provide recommendations for future model development and firn investigation. |
author2 |
Sub Dynamics Meteorology Marine and Atmospheric Research |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vandecrux, Baptiste Mottram, Ruth H. Langen, Peter L. Fausto, Robert S. Olesen, Martin Stevens, C. Max Verjans, Vincent Leeson, Amber Ligtenberg, S.R.M. Kuipers Munneke, P. Marchenko, Sergey van Pelt, W.J.J. Meyer, Colin R. Simonsen, Sebastian B. Heilig, Achim Samimi, Samira Marshall, Shawn Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Michael Niwano, Masashi Miller, Olivia Voss, Clifford Box, Jason E. |
spellingShingle |
Vandecrux, Baptiste Mottram, Ruth H. Langen, Peter L. Fausto, Robert S. Olesen, Martin Stevens, C. Max Verjans, Vincent Leeson, Amber Ligtenberg, S.R.M. Kuipers Munneke, P. Marchenko, Sergey van Pelt, W.J.J. Meyer, Colin R. Simonsen, Sebastian B. Heilig, Achim Samimi, Samira Marshall, Shawn Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Michael Niwano, Masashi Miller, Olivia Voss, Clifford Box, Jason E. The firn meltwater Retention Model Intercomparison Project (RetMIP): evaluation of nine firn models at four weather station sites on the Greenland ice sheet |
author_facet |
Vandecrux, Baptiste Mottram, Ruth H. Langen, Peter L. Fausto, Robert S. Olesen, Martin Stevens, C. Max Verjans, Vincent Leeson, Amber Ligtenberg, S.R.M. Kuipers Munneke, P. Marchenko, Sergey van Pelt, W.J.J. Meyer, Colin R. Simonsen, Sebastian B. Heilig, Achim Samimi, Samira Marshall, Shawn Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Michael Niwano, Masashi Miller, Olivia Voss, Clifford Box, Jason E. |
author_sort |
Vandecrux, Baptiste |
title |
The firn meltwater Retention Model Intercomparison Project (RetMIP): evaluation of nine firn models at four weather station sites on the Greenland ice sheet |
title_short |
The firn meltwater Retention Model Intercomparison Project (RetMIP): evaluation of nine firn models at four weather station sites on the Greenland ice sheet |
title_full |
The firn meltwater Retention Model Intercomparison Project (RetMIP): evaluation of nine firn models at four weather station sites on the Greenland ice sheet |
title_fullStr |
The firn meltwater Retention Model Intercomparison Project (RetMIP): evaluation of nine firn models at four weather station sites on the Greenland ice sheet |
title_full_unstemmed |
The firn meltwater Retention Model Intercomparison Project (RetMIP): evaluation of nine firn models at four weather station sites on the Greenland ice sheet |
title_sort |
firn meltwater retention model intercomparison project (retmip): evaluation of nine firn models at four weather station sites on the greenland ice sheet |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/409870 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
1994-0416 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/409870 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
_version_ |
1784271624332115968 |