Influence of sea ice decline, atmospheric warming, and glacier width on marine-terminating outlet glacier behavior in northwest Greenland at seasonal to interannual timescales

Carr, J.R.; Vieli, A.; Stokes, C.R.

doi:10.1002/jgrf.20088

Influence of sea ice decline, atmospheric warming, and glacier width on marine-terminating outlet glacier behavior in northwest Greenland at seasonal to interannual timescales

Carr, J.R.; Vieli, A.; Stokes, C.R.

Authors

J.R. Carr

A. Vieli

Professor Chris Stokes c.r.stokes@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

[1] Discharge from marine-terminating outlet glaciers represents a key component of the Greenland Ice Sheet mass budget and observations suggest that mass loss from northwest Greenland has recently accelerated. Despite this, the factors controlling outlet glacier dynamics within this region have been comparatively poorly studied. Here we use remotely sensed data to investigate the influence of atmospheric, oceanic, and glacier-specific controls on the frontal position of Alison Glacier (AG), northwest Greenland, and nine surrounding outlet glaciers. AG retreated by 9.7 km between 2001 and 2005, following at least 25 years of minimal change. Results suggest that sea ice and air temperatures influence glacier frontal position at seasonal and interannual timescales. However, the response of individual outlet glaciers to forcing was strongly modified by factors specific to each glacier, specifically variations in fjord width and terminus type. Overall, our results underscore the need to consider these factors in order to interpret recent rapid changes and predict the dynamic response of marine-terminating outlet glaciers to atmospheric and oceanic forcing.

Citation

Carr, J., Vieli, A., & Stokes, C. (2013). Influence of sea ice decline, atmospheric warming, and glacier width on marine-terminating outlet glacier behavior in northwest Greenland at seasonal to interannual timescales. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 118(3), 1210-1226. https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrf.20088

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Sep 1, 2013
Deposit Date	Oct 21, 2013
Publicly Available Date	May 27, 2014
Journal	Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface
Print ISSN	2169-9011
Publisher	American Geophysical Union
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	118
Issue	3
Pages	1210-1226
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrf.20088
Keywords	Greenland Ice Sheet, Tidewater glacier, Arctic, Cryosphere, Glacier dynamics, Climate change.

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Copyright Statement
©2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Carr, J. R., A. Vieli, and C. Stokes (2013), Inﬂuence of sea ice decline, atmospheric warming, and glacier width
on marine-terminating outlet glacier behavior in northwest Greenland at seasonal to interannual timescales, Journal of Geophysical Research, 118, 1210-1226, 10.1002/jgrf.20088. To view the published open abstract, go to http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgrf.20088.