Exceptionally high heat flux needed to sustain the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream

Smith-Johnsen, Silje; de Fleurian, Basile; Schlegel, Nicole; Seroussi, Helene; Nisancioglu, Kerim

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-841-2020

Articles | Volume 14, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-841-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-841-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 3

Research article

|

06 Mar 2020

Research article |

| 06 Mar 2020

Exceptionally high heat flux needed to sustain the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream

Silje Smith-Johnsen, Basile de Fleurian, Nicole Schlegel, Helene Seroussi, and Kerim Nisancioglu

Data sets

Greenland monthly surface mass balance 1840-2012 J. E. Box https://zenodo.org/record/3359192

Model code and software

ISSM software JPL https://issm.jpl.nasa.gov/

Short summary

The Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS) drains a large part of Greenland and displays fast flow far inland. However, the flow pattern is not well represented in ice sheet models. The fast flow has been explained by abnormally high geothermal heat flux. The heat melts the base of the ice sheet and the water produced may lubricate the bed and induce fast flow. By including high geothermal heat flux and a hydrology model, we successfully reproduce NEGIS flow pattern in an ice sheet model.