Brief communication: Improved simulation of the present-day Greenland firn layer (1960–2016)

Ligtenberg, Stefan R. M.; Kuipers Munneke, Peter; Noël, Brice P. Y.; van den Broeke, Michiel R.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1643-2018

Articles | Volume 12, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1643-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1643-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 5

Brief communication

|

08 May 2018

Brief communication |

| 08 May 2018

Brief communication: Improved simulation of the present-day Greenland firn layer (1960–2016)

Stefan R. M. Ligtenberg, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Brice P. Y. Noël, and Michiel R. van den Broeke

Data sets

Modelled firn air content and 10 m firn temperature for the Greenland ice sheet (1960-2016) in NetCDF format SRM Ligtenberg, P Kuipers Munneke, Peter, BPY Noël, MR van den Broeke https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.884617

Short summary

Firn is the transitional product between fresh snow and glacier ice, and a 10-100 m thick layer covers the Greenland ice sheet. It has the capacity to store meltwater and thereby mitigate runoff to the ocean. Using a model and improved atmospheric forcing, we simulate firn density and temperature that agrees well with observations from firn cores. Especially in the regions with substantial melt, and therefore the most sensitive to a warming climate, the results improved significantly.