Articles | Volume 15, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-233-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-233-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Review article
| Highlight paper
| 
25 Jan 2021
Review article | Highlight paper |
| 25 Jan 2021
| 25 Jan 2021
Review article: Earth's ice imbalance
Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, School of Earth and
Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
Isobel R. Lawrence
Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, School of Earth and
Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
Inès N. Otosaka
Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, School of Earth and
Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
Andrew Shepherd
Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, School of Earth and
Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
Noel Gourmelen
School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, UK
Livia Jakob
EarthWave Ltd, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
Paul Tepes
School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, UK
Lin Gilbert
Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Department of Space and Climate Physics, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Peter Nienow
School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, UK
Related authors
Benjamin Joseph Davison, Anna Elizabeth Hogg, Thomas Slater, and Richard Rigby
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-448, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-448, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Grounding line discharge is a measure of the amount of ice entering the ocean from an ice mass. This paper describes a dataset of grounding line discharge for the Antarctic Ice Sheet and each of its glaciers. The dataset shows that Antarctic Ice Sheet grounding line discharge has increased since 1996.
Inès N. Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Erik R. Ivins, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Charles Amory, Michiel R. van den Broeke, Martin Horwath, Ian Joughin, Michalea D. King, Gerhard Krinner, Sophie Nowicki, Anthony J. Payne, Eric Rignot, Ted Scambos, Karen M. Simon, Benjamin E. Smith, Louise S. Sørensen, Isabella Velicogna, Pippa L. Whitehouse, Geruo A, Cécile Agosta, Andreas P. Ahlstrøm, Alejandro Blazquez, William Colgan, Marcus E. Engdahl, Xavier Fettweis, Rene Forsberg, Hubert Gallée, Alex Gardner, Lin Gilbert, Noel Gourmelen, Andreas Groh, Brian C. Gunter, Christopher Harig, Veit Helm, Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Christoph Kittel, Hannes Konrad, Peter L. Langen, Benoit S. Lecavalier, Chia-Chun Liang, Bryant D. Loomis, Malcolm McMillan, Daniele Melini, Sebastian H. Mernild, Ruth Mottram, Jeremie Mouginot, Johan Nilsson, Brice Noël, Mark E. Pattle, William R. Peltier, Nadege Pie, Mònica Roca, Ingo Sasgen, Himanshu V. Save, Ki-Weon Seo, Bernd Scheuchl, Ernst J. O. Schrama, Ludwig Schröder, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Thomas Slater, Giorgio Spada, Tyler C. Sutterley, Bramha Dutt Vishwakarma, Jan Melchior van Wessem, David Wiese, Wouter van der Wal, and Bert Wouters
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1597–1616, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
By measuring changes in the volume, gravitational attraction, and ice flow of Greenland and Antarctica from space, we can monitor their mass gain and loss over time. Here, we present a new record of the Earth’s polar ice sheet mass balance produced by aggregating 50 satellite-based estimates of ice sheet mass change. This new assessment shows that the ice sheets have lost (7.5 x 1012) t of ice between 1992 and 2020, contributing 21 mm to sea level rise.
Karina von Schuckmann, Audrey Minière, Flora Gues, Francisco José Cuesta-Valero, Gottfried Kirchengast, Susheel Adusumilli, Fiammetta Straneo, Michaël Ablain, Richard P. Allan, Paul M. Barker, Hugo Beltrami, Alejandro Blazquez, Tim Boyer, Lijing Cheng, John Church, Damien Desbruyeres, Han Dolman, Catia M. Domingues, Almudena García-García, Donata Giglio, John E. Gilson, Maximilian Gorfer, Leopold Haimberger, Maria Z. Hakuba, Stefan Hendricks, Shigeki Hosoda, Gregory C. Johnson, Rachel Killick, Brian King, Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, Anton Korosov, Gerhard Krinner, Mikael Kuusela, Felix W. Landerer, Moritz Langer, Thomas Lavergne, Isobel Lawrence, Yuehua Li, John Lyman, Florence Marti, Ben Marzeion, Michael Mayer, Andrew H. MacDougall, Trevor McDougall, Didier Paolo Monselesan, Jan Nitzbon, Inès Otosaka, Jian Peng, Sarah Purkey, Dean Roemmich, Kanako Sato, Katsunari Sato, Abhishek Savita, Axel Schweiger, Andrew Shepherd, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Leon Simons, Donald A. Slater, Thomas Slater, Andrea K. Steiner, Toshio Suga, Tanguy Szekely, Wim Thiery, Mary-Louise Timmermans, Inne Vanderkelen, Susan E. Wjiffels, Tonghua Wu, and Michael Zemp
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1675–1709, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Earth's climate is out of energy balance, and this study quantifies how much heat has consequently accumulated over the past decades (ocean: 89 %, land: 6 %, cryosphere: 4 %, atmosphere: 1 %). Since 1971, this accumulated heat reached record values at an increasing pace. The Earth heat inventory provides a comprehensive view on the status and expectation of global warming, and we call for an implementation of this global climate indicator into the Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake.
Amy E. Swiggs, Isobel R. Lawrence, and Andrew Shepherd
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-693, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-693, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
Short summary
Short summary
We produce a new sea ice concentration product in the Canadian Arctic. This region is vital for shipping, sea ice dependent species, and the movement of sea ice and freshwater. We find that the new dataset agrees well with existing sensors. As it is sensitive to leads, it can detect fine-scale sea ice features, and generally resolves a lower sea ice concentration for this reason. This different approach is important for monitoring sea ice dynamics in a changing climate.
Katie Lowery, Pierre Dutrieux, Paul R. Holland, Anna E. Hogg, Noel Gourmelen, and Benjamin J. Wallis
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-267, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-267, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We use CryoSat-2 to observe monthly changes in Pine Island Glacier's ice shelf (PIG) surface at 250 m resolution. We show that melt is focused on the western walls of basal channels and highlight the role of channels in grounding pinning points. PIG’s main channel geometry is inherited from the ice-bed interface upstream of the grounding line. These results highlight the importance of channels on ice shelf stability and how this can change over time.
Lokesh Jain, Donald Slater, and Peter Nienow
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4081, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4081, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Ice mélange is a mixture of icebergs and sea ice which floats in front of Greenland’s largest glaciers. The presence of an ice mélange can have a significant impact on a glacier and its fjord, but the melting of an ice mélange by the ocean is currently poorly understood. We used computer simulations to develop an equation which describes how ice mélange melts under different environmental conditions.
Alex T. Archibald, Bablu Sinha, Maria R. Russo, Emily Matthews, Freya A. Squires, N. Luke Abraham, Stephane J.-B. Bauguitte, Thomas J. Bannan, Thomas G. Bell, David Berry, Lucy J. Carpenter, Hugh Coe, Andrew Coward, Peter Edwards, Daniel Feltham, Dwayne Heard, Jim Hopkins, James Keeble, Elizabeth C. Kent, Brian A. King, Isobel R. Lawrence, James Lee, Claire R. Macintosh, Alex Megann, Bengamin I. Moat, Katie Read, Chris Reed, Malcolm J. Roberts, Reinhard Schiemann, David Schroeder, Timothy J. Smyth, Loren Temple, Navaneeth Thamban, Lisa Whalley, Simon Williams, Huihui Wu, and Mingxi Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 135–164, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-135-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-135-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Here, we present an overview of the data generated as part of the North Atlantic Climate System Integrated Study (ACSIS) programme that are available through dedicated repositories at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA; www.ceda.ac.uk) and the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC; bodc.ac.uk). The datasets described here cover the North Atlantic Ocean, the atmosphere above (it including its composition), and Arctic sea ice.
Renée M. Fredensborg Hansen, Henriette Skourup, Eero Rinne, Arttu Jutila, Isobel R. Lawrence, Andrew Shepherd, Knut V. Høyland, Jilu Li, Fernando Rodriguez-Morales, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Jeremy Wilkinson, Gaelle Veyssiere, Donghui Yi, René Forsberg, and Taniâ G. D. Casal
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2854, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2854, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
In December 2022, an airborne campaign collected unprecedented coincident multi-frequency radar and lidar data over sea ice along a CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 (CRYO2ICE) orbit in the Weddell Sea useful for evaluating microwave penetration. We found limited snow penetration at Ka- and Ku-bands, with significant contributions from the air-snow interface, contradicting traditional assumptions. These findings challenge current methods for comparing air- and spaceborne altimeter estimates of sea ice.
Trystan Surawy-Stepney, Anna E. Hogg, Stephen L. Cornford, Benjamin J. Wallis, Benjamin J. Davison, Heather L. Selley, Ross A. W. Slater, Elise K. Lie, Livia Jakob, Andrew Ridout, Noel Gourmelen, Bryony I. D. Freer, Sally F. Wilson, and Andrew Shepherd
The Cryosphere, 18, 977–993, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-977-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-977-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Here, we use satellite observations and an ice flow model to quantify the impact of sea ice buttressing on ice streams on the Antarctic Peninsula. The evacuation of 11-year-old landfast sea ice in the Larsen B embayment on the East Antarctic Peninsula in January 2022 was closely followed by major changes in the calving behaviour and acceleration (30 %) of the ocean-terminating glaciers. Our results show that sea ice buttressing had a negligible direct role in the observed dynamic changes.
Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Rasmus Bahbah, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Natalia Havelund Andersen, Jade Bowling, Noel Gourmelen, Alex Horton, Nanna B. Karlsson, Amber Leeson, Jennifer Maddalena, Malcolm McMillan, Anne Solgaard, and Birgit Wessel
The Cryosphere, 18, 505–523, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-505-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-505-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Under the right topographic and hydrological conditions, lakes may form beneath the large ice sheets. Some of these subglacial lakes are active, meaning that they periodically drain and refill. When a subglacial lake drains rapidly, it may cause the ice surface above to collapse, and here we investigate how to improve the monitoring of active subglacial lakes in Greenland by monitoring how their associated collapse basins change over time.
Dominik Fahrner, Donald Slater, Aman KC, Claudia Cenedese, David A. Sutherland, Ellyn Enderlin, Femke de Jong, Kristian K. Kjeldsen, Michael Wood, Peter Nienow, Sophie Nowicki, and Till Wagner
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-411, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-411, 2023
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
Marine-terminating glaciers can lose mass through frontal ablation, which comprises submarine and surface melting, and iceberg calving. We estimate frontal ablation for 49 marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland by combining existing, satellite derived data and calculating volume change near the glacier front over time. The dataset offers exciting opportunities to study the influence of climate forcings on marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland over multi-decadal timescales.
Hélène Seroussi, Vincent Verjans, Sophie Nowicki, Antony J. Payne, Heiko Goelzer, William H. Lipscomb, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Cécile Agosta, Torsten Albrecht, Xylar Asay-Davis, Alice Barthel, Reinhard Calov, Richard Cullather, Christophe Dumas, Benjamin K. Galton-Fenzi, Rupert Gladstone, Nicholas R. Golledge, Jonathan M. Gregory, Ralf Greve, Tore Hattermann, Matthew J. Hoffman, Angelika Humbert, Philippe Huybrechts, Nicolas C. Jourdain, Thomas Kleiner, Eric Larour, Gunter R. Leguy, Daniel P. Lowry, Chistopher M. Little, Mathieu Morlighem, Frank Pattyn, Tyler Pelle, Stephen F. Price, Aurélien Quiquet, Ronja Reese, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Andrew Shepherd, Erika Simon, Robin S. Smith, Fiammetta Straneo, Sainan Sun, Luke D. Trusel, Jonas Van Breedam, Peter Van Katwyk, Roderik S. W. van de Wal, Ricarda Winkelmann, Chen Zhao, Tong Zhang, and Thomas Zwinger
The Cryosphere, 17, 5197–5217, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5197-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5197-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Mass loss from Antarctica is a key contributor to sea level rise over the 21st century, and the associated uncertainty dominates sea level projections. We highlight here the Antarctic glaciers showing the largest changes and quantify the main sources of uncertainty in their future evolution using an ensemble of ice flow models. We show that on top of Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, Totten and Moscow University glaciers show rapid changes and a strong sensitivity to warmer ocean conditions.
Benjamin Joseph Davison, Anna Elizabeth Hogg, Thomas Slater, and Richard Rigby
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-448, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-448, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Grounding line discharge is a measure of the amount of ice entering the ocean from an ice mass. This paper describes a dataset of grounding line discharge for the Antarctic Ice Sheet and each of its glaciers. The dataset shows that Antarctic Ice Sheet grounding line discharge has increased since 1996.
Anne Braakmann-Folgmann, Andrew Shepherd, David Hogg, and Ella Redmond
The Cryosphere, 17, 4675–4690, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4675-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4675-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we propose a deep neural network to map the extent of giant Antarctic icebergs in Sentinel-1 images automatically. While each manual delineation requires several minutes, our U-net takes less than 0.01 s. In terms of accuracy, we find that U-net outperforms two standard segmentation techniques (Otsu, k-means) in most metrics and is more robust to challenging scenes with sea ice, coast and other icebergs. The absolute median deviation in iceberg area across 191 images is 4.1 %.
Prateek Gantayat, Alison F. Banwell, Amber A. Leeson, James M. Lea, Dorthe Petersen, Noel Gourmelen, and Xavier Fettweis
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 5803–5823, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5803-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5803-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We developed a new supraglacial hydrology model for the Greenland Ice Sheet. This model simulates surface meltwater routing, meltwater drainage, supraglacial lake (SGL) overflow, and formation of lake ice. The model was able to reproduce 80 % of observed lake locations and provides a good match between the observed and modelled temporal evolution of SGLs.
Inès N. Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Erik R. Ivins, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Charles Amory, Michiel R. van den Broeke, Martin Horwath, Ian Joughin, Michalea D. King, Gerhard Krinner, Sophie Nowicki, Anthony J. Payne, Eric Rignot, Ted Scambos, Karen M. Simon, Benjamin E. Smith, Louise S. Sørensen, Isabella Velicogna, Pippa L. Whitehouse, Geruo A, Cécile Agosta, Andreas P. Ahlstrøm, Alejandro Blazquez, William Colgan, Marcus E. Engdahl, Xavier Fettweis, Rene Forsberg, Hubert Gallée, Alex Gardner, Lin Gilbert, Noel Gourmelen, Andreas Groh, Brian C. Gunter, Christopher Harig, Veit Helm, Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Christoph Kittel, Hannes Konrad, Peter L. Langen, Benoit S. Lecavalier, Chia-Chun Liang, Bryant D. Loomis, Malcolm McMillan, Daniele Melini, Sebastian H. Mernild, Ruth Mottram, Jeremie Mouginot, Johan Nilsson, Brice Noël, Mark E. Pattle, William R. Peltier, Nadege Pie, Mònica Roca, Ingo Sasgen, Himanshu V. Save, Ki-Weon Seo, Bernd Scheuchl, Ernst J. O. Schrama, Ludwig Schröder, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Thomas Slater, Giorgio Spada, Tyler C. Sutterley, Bramha Dutt Vishwakarma, Jan Melchior van Wessem, David Wiese, Wouter van der Wal, and Bert Wouters
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1597–1616, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
By measuring changes in the volume, gravitational attraction, and ice flow of Greenland and Antarctica from space, we can monitor their mass gain and loss over time. Here, we present a new record of the Earth’s polar ice sheet mass balance produced by aggregating 50 satellite-based estimates of ice sheet mass change. This new assessment shows that the ice sheets have lost (7.5 x 1012) t of ice between 1992 and 2020, contributing 21 mm to sea level rise.
Karina von Schuckmann, Audrey Minière, Flora Gues, Francisco José Cuesta-Valero, Gottfried Kirchengast, Susheel Adusumilli, Fiammetta Straneo, Michaël Ablain, Richard P. Allan, Paul M. Barker, Hugo Beltrami, Alejandro Blazquez, Tim Boyer, Lijing Cheng, John Church, Damien Desbruyeres, Han Dolman, Catia M. Domingues, Almudena García-García, Donata Giglio, John E. Gilson, Maximilian Gorfer, Leopold Haimberger, Maria Z. Hakuba, Stefan Hendricks, Shigeki Hosoda, Gregory C. Johnson, Rachel Killick, Brian King, Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, Anton Korosov, Gerhard Krinner, Mikael Kuusela, Felix W. Landerer, Moritz Langer, Thomas Lavergne, Isobel Lawrence, Yuehua Li, John Lyman, Florence Marti, Ben Marzeion, Michael Mayer, Andrew H. MacDougall, Trevor McDougall, Didier Paolo Monselesan, Jan Nitzbon, Inès Otosaka, Jian Peng, Sarah Purkey, Dean Roemmich, Kanako Sato, Katsunari Sato, Abhishek Savita, Axel Schweiger, Andrew Shepherd, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Leon Simons, Donald A. Slater, Thomas Slater, Andrea K. Steiner, Toshio Suga, Tanguy Szekely, Wim Thiery, Mary-Louise Timmermans, Inne Vanderkelen, Susan E. Wjiffels, Tonghua Wu, and Michael Zemp
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1675–1709, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Earth's climate is out of energy balance, and this study quantifies how much heat has consequently accumulated over the past decades (ocean: 89 %, land: 6 %, cryosphere: 4 %, atmosphere: 1 %). Since 1971, this accumulated heat reached record values at an increasing pace. The Earth heat inventory provides a comprehensive view on the status and expectation of global warming, and we call for an implementation of this global climate indicator into the Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake.
Frank Paul, Livia Piermattei, Désirée Treichler, Lin Gilbert, Luc Girod, Andreas Kääb, Ludivine Libert, Thomas Nagler, Tazio Strozzi, and Jan Wuite
The Cryosphere, 16, 2505–2526, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2505-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2505-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Glacier surges are widespread in the Karakoram and have been intensely studied using satellite data and DEMs. We use time series of such datasets to study three glacier surges in the same region of the Karakoram. We found strongly contrasting advance rates and flow velocities, maximum velocities of 30 m d−1, and a change in the surge mechanism during a surge. A sensor comparison revealed good agreement, but steep terrain and the two smaller glaciers caused limitations for some of them.
Benjamin Joseph Davison, Tom Cowton, Andrew Sole, Finlo Cottier, and Pete Nienow
The Cryosphere, 16, 1181–1196, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1181-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1181-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The ocean is an important driver of Greenland glacier retreat. Icebergs influence ocean temperature in the vicinity of glaciers, which will affect glacier retreat rates, but the effect of icebergs on water temperature is poorly understood. In this study, we use a model to show that icebergs cause large changes to water properties next to Greenland's glaciers, which could influence ocean-driven glacier retreat around Greenland.
Martin Horwath, Benjamin D. Gutknecht, Anny Cazenave, Hindumathi Kulaiappan Palanisamy, Florence Marti, Ben Marzeion, Frank Paul, Raymond Le Bris, Anna E. Hogg, Inès Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Petra Döll, Denise Cáceres, Hannes Müller Schmied, Johnny A. Johannessen, Jan Even Øie Nilsen, Roshin P. Raj, René Forsberg, Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Valentina R. Barletta, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Per Knudsen, Ole Baltazar Andersen, Heidi Ranndal, Stine K. Rose, Christopher J. Merchant, Claire R. Macintosh, Karina von Schuckmann, Kristin Novotny, Andreas Groh, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 411–447, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Global mean sea-level change observed from 1993 to 2016 (mean rate of 3.05 mm yr−1) matches the combined effect of changes in water density (thermal expansion) and ocean mass. Ocean-mass change has been assessed through the contributions from glaciers, ice sheets, and land water storage or directly from satellite data since 2003. Our budget assessments of linear trends and monthly anomalies utilise new datasets and uncertainty characterisations developed within ESA's Climate Change Initiative.
Emma K. Fiedler, Matthew J. Martin, Ed Blockley, Davi Mignac, Nicolas Fournier, Andy Ridout, Andrew Shepherd, and Rachel Tilling
The Cryosphere, 16, 61–85, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-61-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-61-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Sea ice thickness (SIT) observations derived from CryoSat-2 satellite measurements have been successfully used to initialise an ocean and sea ice forecasting model (FOAM). Other centres have previously used gridded and averaged SIT observations for this purpose, but we demonstrate here for the first time that SIT measurements along the satellite orbit track can be used. Validation of the resulting modelled SIT demonstrates improvements in the model performance compared to a control.
Anne Braakmann-Folgmann, Andrew Shepherd, and Andy Ridout
The Cryosphere, 15, 3861–3876, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3861-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3861-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We investigate the disintegration of the B30 iceberg using satellite remote sensing and find that the iceberg lost 378 km3 of ice in 6.5 years, corresponding to 80 % of its initial volume. About two thirds are due to fragmentation at the sides, and one third is due to melting at the iceberg’s base. The release of fresh water and nutrients impacts ocean circulation, sea ice formation, and biological production. We show that adding a snow layer is important when deriving iceberg thickness.
William Gregory, Isobel R. Lawrence, and Michel Tsamados
The Cryosphere, 15, 2857–2871, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2857-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2857-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite measurements of radar freeboard allow us to compute the thickness of sea ice from space; however attaining measurements across the entire Arctic basin typically takes up to 30 d. Here we present a statistical method which allows us to combine observations from three separate satellites to generate daily estimates of radar freeboard across the Arctic Basin. This helps us understand how sea ice thickness is changing on shorter timescales and what may be causing these changes.
Livia Jakob, Noel Gourmelen, Martin Ewart, and Stephen Plummer
The Cryosphere, 15, 1845–1862, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1845-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1845-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Glaciers and ice caps are currently the largest contributor to sea level rise. Global monitoring of these regions is a challenging task, and significant differences remain between current estimates. This study looks at glacier changes in High Mountain Asia and the Gulf of Alaska using a new technique, which for the first time makes the use of satellite radar altimetry for mapping ice mass loss over mountain glacier regions possible.
Lu Zhou, Julienne Stroeve, Shiming Xu, Alek Petty, Rachel Tilling, Mai Winstrup, Philip Rostosky, Isobel R. Lawrence, Glen E. Liston, Andy Ridout, Michel Tsamados, and Vishnu Nandan
The Cryosphere, 15, 345–367, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-345-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-345-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Snow on sea ice plays an important role in the Arctic climate system. Large spatial and temporal discrepancies among the eight snow depth products are analyzed together with their seasonal variability and long-term trends. These snow products are further compared against various ground-truth observations. More analyses on representation error of sea ice parameters are needed for systematic comparison and fusion of airborne, in situ and remote sensing observations.
Heiko Goelzer, Sophie Nowicki, Anthony Payne, Eric Larour, Helene Seroussi, William H. Lipscomb, Jonathan Gregory, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Andrew Shepherd, Erika Simon, Cécile Agosta, Patrick Alexander, Andy Aschwanden, Alice Barthel, Reinhard Calov, Christopher Chambers, Youngmin Choi, Joshua Cuzzone, Christophe Dumas, Tamsin Edwards, Denis Felikson, Xavier Fettweis, Nicholas R. Golledge, Ralf Greve, Angelika Humbert, Philippe Huybrechts, Sebastien Le clec'h, Victoria Lee, Gunter Leguy, Chris Little, Daniel P. Lowry, Mathieu Morlighem, Isabel Nias, Aurelien Quiquet, Martin Rückamp, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Donald A. Slater, Robin S. Smith, Fiamma Straneo, Lev Tarasov, Roderik van de Wal, and Michiel van den Broeke
The Cryosphere, 14, 3071–3096, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3071-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3071-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper we use a large ensemble of Greenland ice sheet models forced by six different global climate models to project ice sheet changes and sea-level rise contributions over the 21st century.
The results for two different greenhouse gas concentration scenarios indicate that the Greenland ice sheet will continue to lose mass until 2100, with contributions to sea-level rise of 90 ± 50 mm and 32 ± 17 mm for the high (RCP8.5) and low (RCP2.6) scenario, respectively.
Hélène Seroussi, Sophie Nowicki, Antony J. Payne, Heiko Goelzer, William H. Lipscomb, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Cécile Agosta, Torsten Albrecht, Xylar Asay-Davis, Alice Barthel, Reinhard Calov, Richard Cullather, Christophe Dumas, Benjamin K. Galton-Fenzi, Rupert Gladstone, Nicholas R. Golledge, Jonathan M. Gregory, Ralf Greve, Tore Hattermann, Matthew J. Hoffman, Angelika Humbert, Philippe Huybrechts, Nicolas C. Jourdain, Thomas Kleiner, Eric Larour, Gunter R. Leguy, Daniel P. Lowry, Chistopher M. Little, Mathieu Morlighem, Frank Pattyn, Tyler Pelle, Stephen F. Price, Aurélien Quiquet, Ronja Reese, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Andrew Shepherd, Erika Simon, Robin S. Smith, Fiammetta Straneo, Sainan Sun, Luke D. Trusel, Jonas Van Breedam, Roderik S. W. van de Wal, Ricarda Winkelmann, Chen Zhao, Tong Zhang, and Thomas Zwinger
The Cryosphere, 14, 3033–3070, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3033-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3033-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The Antarctic ice sheet has been losing mass over at least the past 3 decades in response to changes in atmospheric and oceanic conditions. This study presents an ensemble of model simulations of the Antarctic evolution over the 2015–2100 period based on various ice sheet models, climate forcings and emission scenarios. Results suggest that the West Antarctic ice sheet will continue losing a large amount of ice, while the East Antarctic ice sheet could experience increased snow accumulation.
Karina von Schuckmann, Lijing Cheng, Matthew D. Palmer, James Hansen, Caterina Tassone, Valentin Aich, Susheel Adusumilli, Hugo Beltrami, Tim Boyer, Francisco José Cuesta-Valero, Damien Desbruyères, Catia Domingues, Almudena García-García, Pierre Gentine, John Gilson, Maximilian Gorfer, Leopold Haimberger, Masayoshi Ishii, Gregory C. Johnson, Rachel Killick, Brian A. King, Gottfried Kirchengast, Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, John Lyman, Ben Marzeion, Michael Mayer, Maeva Monier, Didier Paolo Monselesan, Sarah Purkey, Dean Roemmich, Axel Schweiger, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Andrew Shepherd, Donald A. Slater, Andrea K. Steiner, Fiammetta Straneo, Mary-Louise Timmermans, and Susan E. Wijffels
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2013–2041, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2013-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2013-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Understanding how much and where the heat is distributed in the Earth system is fundamental to understanding how this affects warming oceans, atmosphere and land, rising temperatures and sea level, and loss of grounded and floating ice, which are fundamental concerns for society. This study is a Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) concerted international effort to obtain the Earth heat inventory over the period 1960–2018.
Sophie Nowicki, Heiko Goelzer, Hélène Seroussi, Anthony J. Payne, William H. Lipscomb, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Cécile Agosta, Patrick Alexander, Xylar S. Asay-Davis, Alice Barthel, Thomas J. Bracegirdle, Richard Cullather, Denis Felikson, Xavier Fettweis, Jonathan M. Gregory, Tore Hattermann, Nicolas C. Jourdain, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Eric Larour, Christopher M. Little, Mathieu Morlighem, Isabel Nias, Andrew Shepherd, Erika Simon, Donald Slater, Robin S. Smith, Fiammetta Straneo, Luke D. Trusel, Michiel R. van den Broeke, and Roderik van de Wal
The Cryosphere, 14, 2331–2368, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2331-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2331-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This paper describes the experimental protocol for ice sheet models taking part in the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparion Project for CMIP6 (ISMIP6) and presents an overview of the atmospheric and oceanic datasets to be used for the simulations. The ISMIP6 framework allows for exploring the uncertainty in 21st century sea level change from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
Michael Kern, Robert Cullen, Bruno Berruti, Jerome Bouffard, Tania Casal, Mark R. Drinkwater, Antonio Gabriele, Arnaud Lecuyot, Michael Ludwig, Rolv Midthassel, Ignacio Navas Traver, Tommaso Parrinello, Gerhard Ressler, Erik Andersson, Cristina Martin-Puig, Ole Andersen, Annett Bartsch, Sinead Farrell, Sara Fleury, Simon Gascoin, Amandine Guillot, Angelika Humbert, Eero Rinne, Andrew Shepherd, Michiel R. van den Broeke, and John Yackel
The Cryosphere, 14, 2235–2251, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2235-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2235-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The Copernicus Polar Ice and Snow Topography Altimeter will provide high-resolution sea ice thickness and land ice elevation measurements and the capability to determine the properties of snow cover on ice to serve operational products and services of direct relevance to the polar regions. This paper describes the mission objectives, identifies the key contributions the CRISTAL mission will make, and presents a concept – as far as it is already defined – for the mission payload.
Wei Wei, Donald D. Blankenship, Jamin S. Greenbaum, Noel Gourmelen, Christine F. Dow, Thomas G. Richter, Chad A. Greene, Duncan A. Young, SangHoon Lee, Tae-Wan Kim, Won Sang Lee, and Karen M. Assmann
The Cryosphere, 14, 1399–1408, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1399-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1399-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Getz Ice Shelf is the largest meltwater source from Antarctica of the Southern Ocean. This study compares the relative importance of the meltwater production of Getz from both ocean and subglacial sources. We show that basal melt rates are elevated where bathymetric troughs provide pathways for warm Circumpolar Deep Water to enter the Getz Ice Shelf cavity. In particular, we find that subshelf melting is enhanced where subglacially discharged fresh water flows across the grounding line.
Robbie D. C. Mallett, Isobel R. Lawrence, Julienne C. Stroeve, Jack C. Landy, and Michel Tsamados
The Cryosphere, 14, 251–260, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-251-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-251-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Soils store large carbon and are important for global warming. We do not know what factors are important for soil carbon storage in the alpine Andes and how they work. We studied how rainfall affects soil carbon storage related to soil structure. We found soil structure is not important, but soil carbon storage and stability controlled by rainfall are dependent on rocks under the soils. The results indicate that we should pay attention to the rocks when studying soil carbon storage in the Andes.
Christopher Horvat, Lettie A. Roach, Rachel Tilling, Cecilia M. Bitz, Baylor Fox-Kemper, Colin Guider, Kaitlin Hill, Andy Ridout, and Andrew Shepherd
The Cryosphere, 13, 2869–2885, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2869-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2869-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Changes in the floe size distribution (FSD) are important for sea ice evolution but to date largely unobserved and unknown. Climate models, forecast centres, ship captains, and logistic specialists cannot currently obtain statistical information about sea ice floe size on demand. We develop a new method to observe the FSD at global scales and high temporal and spatial resolution. With refinement, this method can provide crucial information for polar ship routing and real-time forecasting.
David A. Lilien, Ian Joughin, Benjamin Smith, and Noel Gourmelen
The Cryosphere, 13, 2817–2834, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2817-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2817-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We used a number of computer simulations to understand the recent retreat of a rapidly changing group of glaciers in West Antarctica. We found that significant melt underneath the floating extensions of the glaciers, driven by relatively warm ocean water at depth, was likely needed to cause the large retreat that has been observed. If melt continues around current rates, retreat is likely to continue through the coming century and extend beyond the present-day drainage area of these glaciers.
Hélène Seroussi, Sophie Nowicki, Erika Simon, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Torsten Albrecht, Julien Brondex, Stephen Cornford, Christophe Dumas, Fabien Gillet-Chaulet, Heiko Goelzer, Nicholas R. Golledge, Jonathan M. Gregory, Ralf Greve, Matthew J. Hoffman, Angelika Humbert, Philippe Huybrechts, Thomas Kleiner, Eric Larour, Gunter Leguy, William H. Lipscomb, Daniel Lowry, Matthias Mengel, Mathieu Morlighem, Frank Pattyn, Anthony J. Payne, David Pollard, Stephen F. Price, Aurélien Quiquet, Thomas J. Reerink, Ronja Reese, Christian B. Rodehacke, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Andrew Shepherd, Sainan Sun, Johannes Sutter, Jonas Van Breedam, Roderik S. W. van de Wal, Ricarda Winkelmann, and Tong Zhang
The Cryosphere, 13, 1441–1471, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1441-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1441-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We compare a wide range of Antarctic ice sheet simulations with varying initialization techniques and model parameters to understand the role they play on the projected evolution of this ice sheet under simple scenarios. Results are improved compared to previous assessments and show that continued improvements in the representation of the floating ice around Antarctica are critical to reduce the uncertainty in the future ice sheet contribution to sea level rise.
Malcolm McMillan, Alan Muir, Andrew Shepherd, Roger Escolà, Mònica Roca, Jérémie Aublanc, Pierre Thibaut, Marco Restano, Américo Ambrozio, and Jérôme Benveniste
The Cryosphere, 13, 709–722, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-709-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-709-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is one of the main causes of current sea level rise. Understanding ice sheet change requires large-scale systematic satellite monitoring programmes. This study provides the first assessment of a new long-term source of measurements, from Sentinel-3 satellite altimetry. We estimate the accuracy of Sentinel-3 across Antarctica, show that the satellite can detect regions that are rapidly losing ice, and identify signs of subglacial lake activity.
Isobel R. Lawrence, Michel C. Tsamados, Julienne C. Stroeve, Thomas W. K. Armitage, and Andy L. Ridout
The Cryosphere, 12, 3551–3564, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3551-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3551-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper we estimate the thickness of snow cover on Arctic sea ice from space. We use data from two radar altimeter satellites, AltiKa and CryoSat-2, that have been operating synchronously since 2013. We produce maps of monthly average snow depth for the four growth seasons (October to April): 2012–2013, 2013–2014, 2014–2015, and 2015–2016. Snow depth estimates are essential for the accurate retrieval of sea ice thickness from satellite altimetry.
Maria Belmonte Rivas, Ines Otosaka, Ad Stoffelen, and Anton Verhoef
The Cryosphere, 12, 2941–2953, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2941-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2941-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We provide a novel record of scatterometer sea ice extents and backscatter that complements the passive microwave products nicely, particularly for the correction of summer melt errors. The sea ice backscatter maps help differentiate between seasonal and perennial Arctic ice classes, and between second-year and older multiyear ice, revealing the emergence of SY ice as the dominant perennial ice type after the record loss in 2007 and attesting to its use as a proxy for ice thickness.
Frazer D. W. Christie, Robert G. Bingham, Noel Gourmelen, Eric J. Steig, Rosie R. Bisset, Hamish D. Pritchard, Kate Snow, and Simon F. B. Tett
The Cryosphere, 12, 2461–2479, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2461-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2461-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
With a focus on the hitherto little-studied Marie Byrd Land coastline linking Antarctica's more comprehensively studied Amundsen and Ross Sea Embayments, this paper uses both satellite remote sensing (Landsat, ASTER, ICESat, and CryoSat2) and climate and ocean records (i.e. ERA-Interim, Met Office EN4 data) to examine links between ice recession, inter-decadal atmosphere-ocean forcing and other influences acting upon the Pacific-facing coastline of West Antarctica.
Adriano Lemos, Andrew Shepherd, Malcolm McMillan, Anna E. Hogg, Emma Hatton, and Ian Joughin
The Cryosphere, 12, 2087–2097, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2087-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2087-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We present time-series of ice surface velocities on four key outlet glaciers in Greenland, derived from sequential satellite imagery acquired between October 2014 and February 2017. We demonstrate it is possible to resolve seasonal and inter-annual changes in outlet glacier with an estimated certainty of 10 %. These datasets are key for the timely identification of emerging signals of dynamic imbalance and for understanding the processes driving ice velocity change.
Thomas Slater, Andrew Shepherd, Malcolm McMillan, Alan Muir, Lin Gilbert, Anna E. Hogg, Hannes Konrad, and Tommaso Parrinello
The Cryosphere, 12, 1551–1562, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1551-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1551-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We present a new digital elevation model of Antarctica derived from 6 years of elevation measurements acquired by ESA's CryoSat-2 satellite radar altimeter. We compare our elevation model to an independent set of NASA IceBridge airborne laser altimeter measurements and find the overall accuracy to be 9.5 m – a value comparable to or better than that of other models derived from satellite altimetry. The new CryoSat-2 digital elevation model of Antarctica will be made freely available.
Heiko Goelzer, Sophie Nowicki, Tamsin Edwards, Matthew Beckley, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Andy Aschwanden, Reinhard Calov, Olivier Gagliardini, Fabien Gillet-Chaulet, Nicholas R. Golledge, Jonathan Gregory, Ralf Greve, Angelika Humbert, Philippe Huybrechts, Joseph H. Kennedy, Eric Larour, William H. Lipscomb, Sébastien Le clec'h, Victoria Lee, Mathieu Morlighem, Frank Pattyn, Antony J. Payne, Christian Rodehacke, Martin Rückamp, Fuyuki Saito, Nicole Schlegel, Helene Seroussi, Andrew Shepherd, Sainan Sun, Roderik van de Wal, and Florian A. Ziemen
The Cryosphere, 12, 1433–1460, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1433-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1433-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We have compared a wide spectrum of different initialisation techniques used in the ice sheet modelling community to define the modelled present-day Greenland ice sheet state as a starting point for physically based future-sea-level-change projections. Compared to earlier community-wide comparisons, we find better agreement across different models, which implies overall improvement of our understanding of what is needed to produce such initial states.
Peter Kuipers Munneke, Daniel McGrath, Brooke Medley, Adrian Luckman, Suzanne Bevan, Bernd Kulessa, Daniela Jansen, Adam Booth, Paul Smeets, Bryn Hubbard, David Ashmore, Michiel Van den Broeke, Heidi Sevestre, Konrad Steffen, Andrew Shepherd, and Noel Gourmelen
The Cryosphere, 11, 2411–2426, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2411-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2411-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
How much snow falls on the Larsen C ice shelf? This is a relevant question, because this ice shelf might collapse sometime this century. To know if and when this could happen, we found out how much snow falls on its surface. This was difficult, because there are only very few measurements. Here, we used data from automatic weather stations, sled-pulled radars, and a climate model to find that melting the annual snowfall produces about 20 cm of water in the NE and over 70 cm in the SW.
Benjamin E. Smith, Noel Gourmelen, Alexander Huth, and Ian Joughin
The Cryosphere, 11, 451–467, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-451-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-451-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper we investigate elevation changes of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, one of the main sources of excess ice discharge into the ocean. We find that in early 2013, four subglacial lakes separated by 100 km drained suddenly, discharging more than 3 km3 of water under the fastest part of the glacier in less than 6 months. Concurrent ice-speed measurements show only minor changes, suggesting that ice dynamics are not strongly sensitive to changes in water flow.
Sophie M. J. Nowicki, Anthony Payne, Eric Larour, Helene Seroussi, Heiko Goelzer, William Lipscomb, Jonathan Gregory, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, and Andrew Shepherd
Geosci. Model Dev., 9, 4521–4545, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-4521-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-4521-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
This paper describes an experimental protocol designed to quantify and understand the global sea level that arises due to past, present, and future changes in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, along with investigating ice sheet–climate feedbacks. The Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP6 (ISMIP6) protocol includes targeted experiments, and a set of output diagnostic related to ice sheets, that are part of the 6th phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6).
Jemma Louise Wadham, Jonathan Hawkings, Jon Telling, Dave Chandler, Jon Alcock, Emily O'Donnell, Preeti Kaur, Elizabeth Bagshaw, Martyn Tranter, Andre Tedstone, and Peter Nienow
Biogeosciences, 13, 6339–6352, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-6339-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-6339-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
Fjord and continental shelf environments in the polar regions are host to some of the planet's most productive ecosystems and support economically important fisheries. A key limiting nutrient for many of these marine phytoplankton is nitrogen. Here we evaluate the potential for a melting Greenland Ice Sheet to supply nitrogen to Arctic coastal ecosystems. We show nitrogen fluxes of a similar order of magnitude to one large Arctic river but yields that are double those typical of Arctic rivers.
Rachel L. Tilling, Andy Ridout, and Andrew Shepherd
The Cryosphere, 10, 2003–2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2003-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2003-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
We use CryoSat-2 satellite data to provide the first near-real-time (NRT) measurements of absolute sea ice thickness across the entire Northern Hemisphere. We analyse our NRT sea-ice-thickness data for one sea ice growth season, from October 2014 to April 2015. Over that time period a NRT thickness measurement was delivered, on average, within 14, 7 and 6 km of each location in the Arctic every 2, 14 and 28 days respectively.
J. Kropáček, N. Neckel, B. Tyrna, N. Holzer, A. Hovden, N. Gourmelen, C. Schneider, M. Buchroithner, and V. Hochschild
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 2425–2437, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-2425-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-2425-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
The supraglacial lake basin was mapped by DGPS and the SFM approach from terrestrial photographs. The maximum filling capacity of the lake was estimated, with a maximum discharge of 77.8 m3/s, calculated using an empirical relation. The flooded area in the valley was delineated by employing a raster-based hydraulic model. A coincidence of the GLOF events with high values of cumulative above-zero temperature and precipitation calculated from the HAR data set was revealed.
J. J. Fürst, G. Durand, F. Gillet-Chaulet, N. Merino, L. Tavard, J. Mouginot, N. Gourmelen, and O. Gagliardini
The Cryosphere, 9, 1427–1443, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1427-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1427-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
We present a comprehensive high-resolution assimilation of Antarctic surface velocities with a flow model. The inferred velocities are in very good agreement with observations, even when compared to recent studies on individual shelves. This quality allows to identify a pattern in the velocity mismatch that points at pinning points not present in the input geometry. We identify seven potential pinning points around Antarctica, for now uncharted, providing prominent resistance to the ice flow.
S. de la Peña, I. M. Howat, P. W. Nienow, M. R. van den Broeke, E. Mosley-Thompson, S. F. Price, D. Mair, B. Noël, and A. J. Sole
The Cryosphere, 9, 1203–1211, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1203-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1203-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents an assessment of changes in the near-surface structure of the accumulation zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet caused by an increase of melt at higher elevations in the last decade, especially during the unusually warm years of 2010 and 2012. The increase in melt and firn densification complicate the interpretation of changes in the ice volume, and the observed increase in firn ice content may reduce the important meltwater buffering capacity of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
C. C. Clason, D. W. F. Mair, P. W. Nienow, I. D. Bartholomew, A. Sole, S. Palmer, and W. Schwanghart
The Cryosphere, 9, 123–138, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-123-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-123-2015, 2015
E. C. Lawson, J. L. Wadham, M. Tranter, M. Stibal, G. P. Lis, C. E. H. Butler, J. Laybourn-Parry, P. Nienow, D. Chandler, and P. Dewsbury
Biogeosciences, 11, 4015–4028, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-4015-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-4015-2014, 2014
J. F. Levinsen, K. Khvorostovsky, F. Ticconi, A. Shepherd, R. Forsberg, L. S. Sørensen, A. Muir, N. Pie, D. Felikson, T. Flament, R. Hurkmans, G. Moholdt, B. Gunter, R. C. Lindenbergh, and M. Kleinherenbrink
The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tcd-7-5433-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/tcd-7-5433-2013, 2013
Revised manuscript not accepted
Cited articles
Adusumilli, S., Fricker, H. A., Medley, B., Padman, L., and Siegfried, M. B.:
Interannual variations in meltwater input to the Southern Ocean from
Antarctic ice shelves, Nature Geosci., 13, 616–620, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0616-z,
2020a.
Adusumilli, S., Fricker, H. A., Medley, B. C., Padman, L., and Siegfried, M. R.: Data from: Interannual variations in meltwater input to the Southern Ocean from Antarctic ice shelves [Data set], UC San Diego Library Digital Collections, https://doi.org/10.6075/J04Q7SHT, 2020b.
Armitage, T. W. K., Manucharyan, G. E., Petty, A. A., Kwok, R., and Thompson,
A. F.: Enhanced eddy activity in the Beaufort Gyre in response to sea ice
loss, Nature Commun., 11, 761, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14449-z,
2020.
Bevis, M., Harig, C., Khan, S. A., Brown, A., Simons, F. J., Willis, M.,
Fettweis, X., Broeke, M. R. van den, Madsen, F. B., Kendrick, E., Caccamise,
D. J., Dam, T. van, Knudsen, P., and Nylen, T.: Accelerating changes in ice
mass within Greenland, and the ice sheet's sensitivity to atmospheric
forcing, P. Natl. Acad. Sci., 116, 1934–1939, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1806562116, 2019.
Bintanja, R., van Oldenborgh, G. J., Drijfhout, S. S., Wouters, B., and
Katsman, C. A.: Important role for ocean warming and increased ice-shelf
melt in Antarctic sea-ice expansion, Nature Geosci., 6, 376–379,
https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1767, 2013.
Biskaborn, B. K., Smith, S. L., Noetzli, J., Matthes, H., Vieira, G.,
Streletskiy, D. A., Schoeneich, P., Romanovsky, V. E., Lewkowicz, A. G.,
Abramov, A., Allard, M., Boike, J., Cable, W. L., Christiansen, H. H.,
Delaloye, R., Diekmann, B., Drozdov, D., Etzelmüller, B., Grosse, G.,
Guglielmin, M., Ingeman-Nielsen, T., Isaksen, K., Ishikawa, M., Johansson,
M., Johannsson, H., Joo, A., Kaverin, D., Kholodov, A., Konstantinov, P.,
Kröger, T., Lambiel, C., Lanckman, J.-P., Luo, D., Malkova, G.,
Meiklejohn, I., Moskalenko, N., Oliva, M., Phillips, M., Ramos, M., Sannel,
A. B. K., Sergeev, D., Seybold, C., Skryabin, P., Vasiliev, A., Wu, Q.,
Yoshikawa, K., Zheleznyak, M., and Lantuit, H.: Permafrost is warming at a
global scale, Nature Commun., 10, 264,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-08240-4, 2019.
Blackport, R., Screen, J. A., van der Wiel, K., and Bintanja, R.: Minimal
influence of reduced Arctic sea ice on coincident cold winters in
mid-latitudes, Nat. Clim. Change, 9, 697–704,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0551-4, 2019.
Braun, M. H., Malz, P., Sommer, C., Farías-Barahona, D., Sauter, T., Casassa, G., Soruco, A., Skvarca, P., and Seehaus, T.: Annual glacier elevation change rate raster dataset, South American Andes 2000 and 2011–2015, PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.893612, 2018.
Braun, M. H., Malz, P., Sommer, C., Farías-Barahona, D., Sauter, T.,
Casassa, G., Soruco, A., Skvarca, P., and Seehaus, T. C.: Constraining
glacier elevation and mass changes in South America, Nat. Clim. Change,
9, 130–136, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0375-7, 2019.
Carmack, E. C., Yamamoto-Kawai, M., Haine, T. W. N., Bacon, S., Bluhm, B.
A., Lique, C., Melling, H., Polyakov, I. V., Straneo, F., Timmermans, M.-L.,
and Williams, W. J.: Freshwater and its role in the Arctic Marine System:
Sources, disposition, storage, export, and physical and biogeochemical
consequences in the Arctic and global oceans,
J. Geophys. Res.-Biogeosc., 121, 675–717, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JG003140, 2016.
Cavalieri, D. J., Parkinson, C. L., Gloersen, P., Comiso, J. C., and Zwally,
H. J.: Deriving long-term time series of sea ice cover from satellite
passive-microwave multisensor data sets, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 104, 15803–15814, https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JC900081, 1999.
Cook, A. J. and Vaughan, D. G.: Overview of areal changes of the ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula over the past 50 years, The Cryosphere, 4, 77–98, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-4-77-2010, 2010.
Dai, A., Luo, D., Song, M., and Liu, J.: Arctic amplification is caused by
sea-ice loss under increasing CO2, Nature Commun., 10, 121,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07954-9, 2019.
Domack, E., Duran, D., Leventer, A., Ishman, S., Doane, S., McCallum, S.,
Amblas, D., Ring, J., Gilbert, R., and Prentice, M.: Stability of the Larsen
B ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula during the Holocene epoch, Nature,
436, 681–685, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03908, 2005.
Dussaillant, I., Berthier, E., Brun, F., Masiokas, M., Hugonnet, R., Favier, V., Rabatel, A., Pitte, P., and Ruiz, L.: South American Andes elevation changes from 2000 to 2018, links to GeoTIFFs, PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.903618, 2019a.
Dussaillant, I., Berthier, E., Brun, F., Masiokas, M., Hugonnet, R., Favier,
V., Rabatel, A., Pitte, P., and Ruiz, L.: Two decades of glacier mass loss
along the Andes, Nature Geosci., 12, 802–808,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0432-5, 2019b.
Enderlin, E. M., Howat, I. M., Jeong, S., Noh, M.-J., van Angelen, J. H., and
van den Broeke, M. R.: An improved mass budget for the Greenland ice sheet,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 866–872, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL059010,
2014.
Farinotti, D., Huss, M., Fürst, J. J., Landmann, J., Machguth, H.,
Maussion, F., and Pandit, A.: A consensus estimate for the ice thickness
distribution of all glaciers on Earth, Nature Geosci., 12, 168–173,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0300-3, 2019.
Ferreira, D., Marshall, J., Bitz, C. M., Solomon, S., and Plumb, A.:
Antarctic Ocean and Sea Ice Response to Ozone Depletion: A Two-Time-Scale
Problem, J. Climate, 28, 1206–1226, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00313.1, 2015.
Foresta, L., Gourmelen, N., Pálsson, F., Nienow, P., Björnsson, H.,
and Shepherd, A.: Surface elevation change and mass balance of Icelandic ice
caps derived from swath mode CryoSat-2 altimetry, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 12138–12145, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071485, 2016.
Francis, J. A. and Vavrus, S. J.: Evidence linking Arctic amplification to
extreme weather in mid-latitudes, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L06801,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL051000, 2012.
Fretwell, P., Pritchard, H. D., Vaughan, D. G., Bamber, J. L., Barrand, N. E., Bell, R., Bianchi, C., Bingham, R. G., Blankenship, D. D., Casassa, G., Catania, G., Callens, D., Conway, H., Cook, A. J., Corr, H. F. J., Damaske, D., Damm, V., Ferraccioli, F., Forsberg, R., Fujita, S., Gim, Y., Gogineni, P., Griggs, J. A., Hindmarsh, R. C. A., Holmlund, P., Holt, J. W., Jacobel, R. W., Jenkins, A., Jokat, W., Jordan, T., King, E. C., Kohler, J., Krabill, W., Riger-Kusk, M., Langley, K. A., Leitchenkov, G., Leuschen, C., Luyendyk, B. P., Matsuoka, K., Mouginot, J., Nitsche, F. O., Nogi, Y., Nost, O. A., Popov, S. V., Rignot, E., Rippin, D. M., Rivera, A., Roberts, J., Ross, N., Siegert, M. J., Smith, A. M., Steinhage, D., Studinger, M., Sun, B., Tinto, B. K., Welch, B. C., Wilson, D., Young, D. A., Xiangbin, C., and Zirizzotti, A.: Bedmap2: improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica, The Cryosphere, 7, 375–393, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-375-2013, 2013.
Gardner, A. S., Moholdt, G., Cogley, J. G., Wouters, B., Arendt, A. A.,
Wahr, J., Berthier, E., Hock, R., Pfeffer, W. T., Kaser, G., Ligtenberg, S.
R. M., Bolch, T., Sharp, M. J., Hagen, J. O., van den Broeke, M. R., and
Paul, F.: A Reconciled Estimate of Glacier Contributions to Sea Level Rise:
2003 to 2009, Science, 340, 852–857, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1234532,
2013.
Golledge, N. R., Keller, E. D., Gomez, N., Naughten, K. A., Bernales, J.,
Trusel, L. D., and Edwards, T. L.: Global environmental consequences of
twenty-first-century ice-sheet melt, Nature, 566, 65–72,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-0889-9, 2019.
Gourmelen, N., Escorihuela, M. J., Shepherd, A., Foresta, L., Muir, A.,
Garcia-Mondéjar, A., Roca, M., Baker, S. G., and Drinkwater, M. R.:
CryoSat-2 swath interferometric altimetry for mapping ice elevation and
elevation change, Adv. Space Res., 62, 1226–1242,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2017.11.014, 2018.
Hartmann, D. L., Klein Tank, A. M. G., Rusticucci, M., Alexander, L. V.,
Brönnimann, S., Charabi, Y., Dentener, F. J., Dlugokencky, E. J.,
Easterling, D. R., Kaplan, A., Soden, B. J., Thorne, P. W., Wild, M., and
Zhai, P. M.: Observations: Atmosphere and Surface, in Climate Change 2013:
The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited
by: Stocker, T. F., Qin, D., Plattner, G.-K., Tignor, M., Allen, S. K.,
Boschung, J., Nauels, A., Xia, Y., Bex, V., and Midgley, P. M., 159–254,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY,
USA, 2013.
Hobbs, W. R., Massom, R., Stammerjohn, S., Reid, P., Williams, G., and Meier,
W.: A review of recent changes in Southern Ocean sea ice, their drivers and
forcings, Global Planet. Change, 143, 228–250,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2016.06.008, 2016.
Hogg, A. E., Shepherd, A., Cornford, S. L., Briggs, K. H., Gourmelen, N.,
Graham, J. A., Joughin, I., Mouginot, J., Nagler, T., Payne, A. J., Rignot,
E., and Wuite, J.: Increased ice flow in Western Palmer Land linked to ocean
melting, Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, 4159–4167,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL072110, 2017.
Holland, D. M., Thomas, R. H., de Young, B., Ribergaard, M. H., and Lyberth,
B.: Acceleration of Jakobshavn Isbræ triggered by warm subsurface ocean
waters, Nature Geosci., 1, 659–664, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo316, 2008.
Howat, I. M., Joughin, I., Fahnestock, M., Smith, B. E., and Scambos, T. A.:
Synchronous retreat and acceleration of southeast Greenland outlet glaciers
2000–06: ice dynamics and coupling to climate, J. Glaciol.,
54, 646–660, https://doi.org/10.3189/002214308786570908, 2008.
Huss, M.: Density assumptions for converting geodetic glacier volume change to mass change, The Cryosphere, 7, 877–887, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-877-2013, 2013.
Huss, M. and Hock, R.: Global-scale hydrological response to future glacier
mass loss, Nat. Clim. Change, 8, 135–140,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0049-x, 2018.
Immerzeel, W. W., Lutz, A. F., Andrade, M., Bahl, A., Biemans, H., Bolch,
T., Hyde, S., Brumby, S., Davies, B. J., Elmore, A. C., Emmer, A., Feng, M.,
Fernández, A., Haritashya, U., Kargel, J. S., Koppes, M., Kraaijenbrink,
P. D. A., Kulkarni, A. V., Mayewski, P. A., Nepal, S., Pacheco, P., Painter,
T. H., Pellicciotti, F., Rajaram, H., Rupper, S., Sinisalo, A., Shrestha, A.
B., Viviroli, D., Wada, Y., Xiao, C., Yao, T., and Baillie, J. E. M.:
Importance and vulnerability of the world's water towers, Nature, 577,
364–369, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1822-y, 2020.
Jakob, L., Gourmelen, N., Ewart, M., and Plummer, S.: Ice loss in High Mountain Asia and the Gulf of Alaska observed by CryoSat-2 swath altimetry between 2010 and 2019, The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2020-176, in review, 2020.
Jacobs, S. S., Helmer, H. H., Doake, C. S. M., Jenkins, A., and Frolich, R.
M.: Melting of ice shelves and the mass balance of Antarctica, J.
Glaciol., 38, 375–387, https://doi.org/10.3189/S0022143000002252, 1992.
Jacobs, S. S., Hellmer, H. H., and Jenkins, A.: Antarctic Ice Sheet melting
in the southeast Pacific, Geophys. Res. Lett., 23, 957–960,
https://doi.org/10.1029/96GL00723, 1996.
Jacobs, S. S., Jenkins, A., Giulivi, C. F., and Dutrieux, P.: Stronger ocean
circulation and increased melting under Pine Island Glacier ice shelf,
Nature Geosci., 4, 519–523, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1188, 2011.
Joughin, I., Alley, R. B., and Holland, D. M.: Ice-Sheet Response to Oceanic
Forcing, Science, 338, 1172–1176, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1226481, 2012.
Laxon, S. W., Giles, K. A., Ridout, A. L., Wingham, D. J., Willatt, R.,
Cullen, R., Kwok, R., Schweiger, A., Zhang, J., Haas, C., Hendricks, S.,
Krishfield, R., Kurtz, N., Farrell, S., and Davidson, M.: CryoSat-2 estimates
of Arctic sea ice thickness and volume, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40,
732–737, https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50193, 2013.
Luthcke, S. B., Zwally, H. J., Abdalati, W., Rowlands, D. D., Ray, R. D.,
Nerem, R. S., Lemoine, F. G., McCarthy, J. J., and Chinn, D. S.: Recent
Greenland Ice Mass Loss by Drainage System from Satellite Gravity
Observations, Science, 314, 1286–1289, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1130776,
2006.
Magnuson, J. J., Robertson, D. M., Benson, B. J., Wynne, R. H., Livingstone,
D. M., Arai, T., Assel, R. A., Barry, R. G., Card, V., Kuusisto, E., Granin,
N. G., Prowse, T. D., Stewart, K. M., and Vuglinski, V. S.: Historical Trends
in Lake and River Ice Cover in the Northern Hemisphere, Science, 289,
1743–1746, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.289.5485.1743, 2000.
Maksym, T.: Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Change: Contrasts, Commonalities,
and Causes, Annu. Rev. Mar. Sci., 11, 187–213,
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-010816-060610, 2019.
Marzeion, B., Cogley, J. G., Richter, K., and Parkes, D.: Attribution of
global glacier mass loss to anthropogenic and natural causes, Science,
345, 919–921, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1254702, 2014.
McMillan, M., Leeson, A., Shepherd, A., Briggs, K., Armitage, T. W. K.,
Hogg, A., Munneke, P. K., Broeke, M. van den, Noël, B., Berg, W. J. van
de, Ligtenberg, S., Horwath, M., Groh, A., Muir, A., and Gilbert, L.: A
high-resolution record of Greenland mass balance, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 7002–7010, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069666, 2016.
Meehl, G. A., Arblaster, J. M., Bitz, C. M., Chung, C. T. Y., and Teng, H.:
Antarctic sea-ice expansion between 2000 and 2014 driven by tropical Pacific
decadal climate variability, Nature Geosci., 9, 590–595,
https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2751, 2016.
Meredith, M., Sommerkorn, M., Cassotta, S., Derksen, C., Ekaykin, A.,
Hollowed, A., Kofinas, G., Mackintosh, A., Melbourne-Thomas, J., Muelbert,
M. M. C., Ottersen, H., Pritchard, H., and Schuur, E. A. G.: Polar Regions,
in IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, in
press, 2019.
Moon, T., Joughin, I., Smith, B., and Howat, I.: 21st-Century Evolution of
Greenland Outlet Glacier Velocities, Science, 336, 576–578,
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1219985, 2012.
Morlighem, M., Williams, C. N., Rignot, E., An, L., Arndt, J. E., Bamber, J.
L., Catania, G., Chauché, N., Dowdeswell, J. A., Dorschel, B., Fenty,
I., Hogan, K., Howat, I., Hubbard, A., Jakobsson, M., Jordan, T. M.,
Kjeldsen, K. K., Millan, R., Mayer, L., Mouginot, J., Noël, B. P. Y.,
O'Cofaigh, C., Palmer, S., Rysgaard, S., Seroussi, H., Siegert, M. J.,
Slabon, P., Straneo, F., van den Broeke, M. R., Weinrebe, W., Wood, M., and
Zinglersen, K. B.: BedMachine v3: Complete Bed Topography and Ocean
Bathymetry Mapping of Greenland From Multibeam Echo Sounding Combined With
Mass Conservation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, 11051–11061,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074954, 2017.
Mortimer, C. A., Copland, L., and Mueller, D. R.: Volume and area changes of
the Milne Ice Shelf, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, since 1950, J. Geophys. Res.-Ea. Surf., 117, F04011, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JF002074,
2012.
Mouginot, J., Rignot, E., and Scheuchl, B.: Sustained increase in ice
discharge from the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, from 1973 to
2013, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 1576–1584,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL059069, 2014.
Mouginot, J., Rignot, E., Bjørk, A. A., Broeke, M. van den, Millan, R.,
Morlighem, M., Noël, B., Scheuchl, B., and Wood, M.: Forty-six years of
Greenland Ice Sheet mass balance from 1972 to 2018, P. Natl. Acad. Sci., 116,
9239–9244, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1904242116, 2019.
Noël, B., van de Berg, W. J., van Wessem, J. M., van Meijgaard, E., van As, D., Lenaerts, J. T. M., Lhermitte, S., Kuipers Munneke, P., Smeets, C. J. P. P., van Ulft, L. H., van de Wal, R. S. W., and van den Broeke, M. R.: Modelling the climate and surface mass balance of polar ice sheets using RACMO2 – Part 1: Greenland (1958–2016), The Cryosphere, 12, 811–831, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-811-2018, 2018.
Otosaka, I., Shepherd, A., and McMillan, M.: Ice Sheet Elevation Change in
West Antarctica From Ka-Band Satellite Radar Altimetry, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 13135–13143, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL084271, 2019.
Overeem, I., Anderson, R. S., Wobus, C. W., Clow, G. D., Urban, F. E., and
Matell, N.: Sea ice loss enhances wave action at the Arctic coast,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L17503, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL048681, 2011.
Overland, J. E., Dethloff, K., Francis, J. A., Hall, R. J., Hanna, E., Kim,
S.-J., Screen, J. A., Shepherd, T. G., and Vihma, T.: Nonlinear response of
mid-latitude weather to the changing Arctic, Nat. Clim. Change, 6,
992–999, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3121, 2016.
Paolo, F. S., Fricker, H. A., and Padman, L.: Volume loss from Antarctic ice
shelves is accelerating, Science, 348, 327–331,
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa0940, 2015.
Parkinson, C. L.: A 40-y record reveals gradual Antarctic sea ice increases
followed by decreases at rates far exceeding the rates seen in the Arctic,
P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 116, 14414, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1906556116, 2019.
Perovich, D. K. and Richter-Menge, J. A.: Loss of Sea Ice in the Arctic,
Annu. Rev. Mar. Sci., 1, 417–441,
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.marine.010908.163805, 2009.
Pistone, K., Eisenman, I., and Ramanathan, V.: Observational determination of
albedo decrease caused by vanishing Arctic sea ice, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA,
111, 3322, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1318201111, 2014.
Pulliainen, J., Luojus, K., Derksen, C., Mudryk, L., Lemmetyinen, J.,
Salminen, M., Ikonen, J., Takala, M., Cohen, J., Smolander, T., and Norberg,
J.: Patterns and trends of Northern Hemisphere snow mass from 1980 to 2018,
Nature, 581, 294–298, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2258-0, 2020.
Rahmstorf, S., Box, J. E., Feulner, G., Mann, M. E., Robinson, A.,
Rutherford, S., and Schaffernicht, E. J.: Exceptional twentieth-century
slowdown in Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation, Nat. Clim. Change,
5, 475–480, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2554, 2015.
RGI Consortium: Randolph Glacier Inventory – A dataset of global glacier
outlines: Version 6.0: Technical Report, Global Land Ice Measurements from
Space, Colorado, USA, https://doi.org/10.7265/N5-RGI-60, 2017.
Rignot, E., Casassa, G., Gogineni, P., Krabill, W., Rivera, A. and Thomas,
R.: Accelerated ice discharge from the Antarctic Peninsula following the
collapse of Larsen B ice shelf, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L18401,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GL020697, 2004.
Rignot, E., Mouginot, J., Scheuchl, B., van den Broeke, M., van Wessem, M.
J., and Morlighem, M.: Four decades of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance from
1979–2017, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 116, 1095,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1812883116, 2019.
Roach, L. A., Dörr, J., Holmes, C. R., Massonnet, F., Blockley, E. W.,
Notz, D., Rackow, T., Raphael, M. N., O'Farrell, S. P., Bailey, D. A., and
Bitz, C. M.: Antarctic Sea Ice Area in CMIP6, Geophys. Res. Lett.,
47, e2019GL086729, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086729, 2020.
Rode, K. D., Regehr, E. V., Douglas, D. C., Durner, G., Derocher, A. E., Thiemann, G. W., and Budge, S. M.: Variation in the response of an Arctic top predator experiencing habitat loss: feeding and reproductive ecology of two polar bear populations, Glob. Change Biol., 20, 76–88, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12339, 2014.
Sandberg Sørensen, L., Simonsen, S. B., Forsberg, R., Khvorostovsky, K.,
Meister, R., and Engdahl, M. E.: 25 years of elevation changes of the
Greenland Ice Sheet from ERS, Envisat, and CryoSat-2 radar altimetry, Earth
Planet. Sci. Lett., 495, 234–241,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.05.015, 2018.
Scambos, T., Hulbe, C., and Fahnestock, M.: Climate-Induced Ice Shelf
Disintegration in the Antarctic Peninsula, in: Antarctic Peninsula Climate
Variability: Historical and Paleoenvironmental Perspectives, 79–92,
American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2013.
Scambos, T. A., Bohlander, J. A., Shuman, C. A., and Skvarca, P.: Glacier
acceleration and thinning after ice shelf collapse in the Larsen B
embayment, Antarctica, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L18402,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GL020670, 2004.
SCAR: Antarctic Digital Database, Version 7.2, British Antarctic Survey, available at: https://www.add.scar.org/
(last access: June 2020) 2020.
Schweiger, A., Lindsay, R., Zhang, J., Steele, M., Stern, H., and Kwok, R.: Uncertainty in modeled Arctic sea ice volume, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 116, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JC007084, 2011.
Screen, J. A. and Simmonds, I.: The central role of diminishing sea ice in
recent Arctic temperature amplification, Nature, 464, 1334–1337,
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09051, 2010.
Shean, D. E., Bhushan, S., Montesano, P., Rounce, D. R., Arendt, A., and
Osmanoglu, B.: A Systematic, Regional Assessment of High Mountain Asia
Glacier Mass Balance, Front. Earth Sci., 7, 363, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00363,
2020 (data available at: https://nsidc.org/data/highmountainasia).
Shepherd, A., Wingham, D., Payne, T., and Skvarca, P.: Larsen Ice Shelf Has
Progressively Thinned, Science, 302, 856–859,
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1089768, 2003.
Shepherd, A., Wingham, D., and Rignot, E.: Warm ocean is eroding West
Antarctic Ice Sheet, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L23402,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GL021106, 2004.
Shepherd, A., Wingham, D., Wallis, D., Giles, K., Laxon, S., and Sundal, A.
V.: Recent loss of floating ice and the consequent sea level contribution,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L13503, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL042496, 2010.
Shepherd, A., Fricker, H. A., and Farrell, S. L.: Trends and connections
across the Antarctic cryosphere, Nature, 558, 223–232,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0171-6, 2018.
Shepherd, A., Gilbert, L., Muir, A. S., Konrad, H., McMillan, M., Slater,
T., Briggs, K. H., Sundal, A. V., Hogg, A. E., and Engdahl, M. E.: Trends in
Antarctic Ice Sheet Elevation and Mass, Geophys. Res. Lett.,
46, 8174–8183, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082182, 2019.
Slater, T., Hogg, A. E., and Mottram, R.: Ice-sheet losses track high-end
sea-level rise projections, Nat. Clim. Change, 10, 879–881,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0893-y, 2020.
Sørensen, L. S., Simonsen, S. B., Nielsen, K., Lucas-Picher, P., Spada, G., Adalgeirsdottir, G., Forsberg, R., and Hvidberg, C. S.: Mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet (2003–2008) from ICESat data – the impact of interpolation, sampling and firn density, The Cryosphere, 5, 173–186, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-5-173-2011, 2011.
Stroeve, J. and Notz, D.: Changing state of Arctic sea ice across all
seasons, Environ. Res. Lett., 13, 103001, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aade56,
2018.
Tepes, P., Gourmelen, N., Nienow, P., Tsamados, M., Shepherd, A., and
Weissgerber, F.: Dynamic and surface mass imbalance of Arctic glaciers and
ice caps, Remote Sens. Environ., in review, 2021.
Thackeray, C. W. and Hall, A.: An emergent constraint on future Arctic
sea-ice albedo feedback, Nat. Clim. Change, 9, 972–978,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0619-1, 2019.
The IMBIE Team: Mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2017,
Nature, 558, 219–222, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0179-y, 2018 (data available at: http://imbie.org/data-downloads/).
The IMBIE Team: Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018,
Nature, 579, 233–239, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1855-2, 2020 (data available at: http://imbie.org/data-downloads/).
Tilling, R. L., Ridout, A., and Shepherd, A.: Estimating Arctic sea ice
thickness and volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data, Adv. Space Res., 62, 1203–1225, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2017.10.051, 2018.
van Wessem, J. M., van de Berg, W. J., Noël, B. P. Y., van Meijgaard, E., Amory, C., Birnbaum, G., Jakobs, C. L., Krüger, K., Lenaerts, J. T. M., Lhermitte, S., Ligtenberg, S. R. M., Medley, B., Reijmer, C. H., van Tricht, K., Trusel, L. D., van Ulft, L. H., Wouters, B., Wuite, J., and van den Broeke, M. R.: Modelling the climate and surface mass balance of polar ice sheets using RACMO2 – Part 2: Antarctica (1979–2016), The Cryosphere, 12, 1479–1498, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1479-2018, 2018.
Vaughan, D. G., Marshall, G. J., Connolley, W. M., Parkinson, C., Mulvaney,
R., Hodgson, D. A., King, J. C., Pudsey, C. J., and Turner, J.: Recent Rapid
Regional Climate Warming on the Antarctic Peninsula, Climatic Change, 60,
243–274, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026021217991, 2003.
Vaughan, D. G., Comiso, J. C., Allison, I., Carrasco, J., Kaser, G., Kwok,
R., Mote, P., Murray, T., Paul, F., Ren, J., Rignot, E., Solomina, O.,
Steffen, K., and Zhang, T.: Observations: Cryosphere, in: Climate Change 2013:
The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited
by: Stocker, T. F., Qin, D., Plattner, G.-K., Tignor, M., Allen, S. K.,
Boschung, J., Nauels, A., Xia, Y., Bex, V., and Midgley, P. M., 317–382,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY,
USA, 2013.
Velicogna, I., Mohajerani, Y., A, G., Landerer, F., Mouginot, J., Noel, B.,
Rignot, E., Sutterley, T., van den Broeke, M., van Wessem, M., and Wiese, D.:
Continuity of Ice Sheet Mass Loss in Greenland and Antarctica From the GRACE
and GRACE Follow-On Missions, Geophys. Res. Lett., 47,
e2020GL087291, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL087291, 2020.
Vellinga, M. and Wood, R. A.: Global Climatic Impacts of a Collapse of the
Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation, Climatic Change, 54, 251–267,
https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016168827653, 2002.
Vieli, A., Payne, A. J., Shepherd, A., and Du, Z.: Causes of pre-collapse
changes of the Larsen B ice shelf: Numerical modelling and assimilation of
satellite observations, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 259,
297–306, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2007.04.050, 2007.
Vihma, T.: Effects of Arctic Sea Ice Decline on Weather and Climate: A
Review, Surv. Geophys., 35, 1175–1214, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-014-9284-0,
2014.
Vitousek, S., Barnard, P. L., Fletcher, C. H., Frazer, N., Erikson, L., and
Storlazzi, C. D.: Doubling of coastal flooding frequency within decades due
to sea-level rise, Sci. Rep., 7, 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01362-7,
2017.
von Schuckmann, K., Cheng, L., Palmer, M. D., Hansen, J., Tassone, C., Aich, V., Adusumilli, S., Beltrami, H., Boyer, T., Cuesta-Valero, F. J., Desbruyères, D., Domingues, C., García-García, A., Gentine, P., Gilson, J., Gorfer, M., Haimberger, L., Ishii, M., Johnson, G. C., Killick, R., King, B. A., Kirchengast, G., Kolodziejczyk, N., Lyman, J., Marzeion, B., Mayer, M., Monier, M., Monselesan, D. P., Purkey, S., Roemmich, D., Schweiger, A., Seneviratne, S. I., Shepherd, A., Slater, D. A., Steiner, A. K., Straneo, F., Timmermans, M.-L., and Wijffels, S. E.: Heat stored in the Earth system: where does the energy go?, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2013–2041, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2013-2020, 2020.
WCRP Global Sea Level Budget Group: Global sea-level budget 1993–present, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 1551–1590, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1551-2018, 2018.
Weertman, J.: Stability of the Junction of an Ice Sheet and an Ice Shelf,
J. Glaciol., 13, 3–11, https://doi.org/10.3189/S0022143000023327, 1974.
Willis, M. J., Melkonian, A. K., and Pritchard, M. E.: Outlet glacier
response to the 2012 collapse of the Matusevich Ice Shelf, Severnaya Zemlya,
Russian Arctic, J. Geophys. Res.-Ea. Surf., 120,
2040–2055, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JF003544, 2015.
Worby, A. P., Geiger, C. A., Paget, M. J., Woert, M. L. V., Ackley, S. F.,
and DeLiberty, T. L.: Thickness distribution of Antarctic sea ice, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 113, C05S92, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JC004254, 2008.
Wouters, B., Gardner, A. S., and Moholdt, G.: Global Glacier Mass Loss During
the GRACE Satellite Mission (2002–2016), Front. Earth Sci., 7, 96,
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00096, 2019.
Zemp, M., Frey, H., Gärtner-Roer, I., Nussbaumer, S. U., Hoelzle, M.,
Paul, F., Haeberli, W., Denzinger, F., Ahlstrøm, A. P., Anderson, B.,
Bajracharya, S., Baroni, C., Braun, L. N., Cáceres, B. E., Casassa, G.,
Cobos, G., Dávila, L. R., Granados, H. D., Demuth, M. N., Espizua, L.,
Fischer, A., Fujita, K., Gadek, B., Ghazanfar, A., Hagen, J. O., Holmlund,
P., Karimi, N., Li, Z., Pelto, M., Pitte, P., Popovnin, V. V., Portocarrero,
C. A., Prinz, R., Sangewar, C. V., Severskiy, I., Sigurđsson, O., Soruco,
A., Usubaliev, R., and Vincent, C.: Historically unprecedented global glacier
decline in the early 21st century, J. Glaciol., 61, 745–762,
https://doi.org/10.3189/2015JoG15J017, 2015.
Zemp, M., Huss, M., Thibert, E., Eckert, N., McNabb, R., Huber, J.,
Barandun, M., Machguth, H., Nussbaumer, S. U., Gärtner-Roer, I.,
Thomson, L., Paul, F., Maussion, F., Kutuzov, S., and Cogley, J. G.: Global
glacier mass changes and their contributions to sea-level rise from 1961 to
2016, Nature, 568, 382–386, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1071-0, 2019a.
Zemp, M., Huss, M., Thibert, E., Eckert, N., McNabb, R., Huber, J., and Cogley, J. G.: Global and regional glacier mass changes from 1961 to 2016 (Version 1.0.0) [Data set], Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1492141, 2019b.
Zemp, M., Huss, M., Eckert, N., Thibert, E., Paul, F., Nussbaumer, S. U., and Gärtner-Roer, I.: Brief communication: Ad hoc estimation of glacier contributions to sea-level rise from the latest glaciological observations, The Cryosphere, 14, 1043–1050, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1043-2020, 2020.
Zhang, J. and Rothrock, D. A.: Modeling Global Sea Ice with a Thickness and
Enthalpy Distribution Model in Generalized Curvilinear Coordinates, Mon.
Weather Rev., 131, 845–861, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0493(2003)131<0845:MGSIWA>2.0.CO;2, 2003 (data available at: http://psc.apl.uw.edu/data/).
Zhang, L., Delworth, T. L., Cooke, W., and Yang, X.: Natural variability of
Southern Ocean convection as a driver of observed climate trends, Nat. Clim. Change, 9, 59–65, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0350-3, 2019.
Download
The requested paper has a corresponding corrigendum published. Please read the corrigendum first before downloading the article.
- Article
(2787 KB) - Full-text XML
Short summary
Satellite observations are the best method for tracking ice loss, because the cryosphere is vast and remote. Using these, and some numerical models, we show that Earth has lost 28 trillion tonnes (Tt) of ice since 1994 from Arctic sea ice (7.6 Tt), ice shelves (6.5 Tt), mountain glaciers (6.1 Tt), the Greenland (3.8 Tt) and Antarctic ice sheets (2.5 Tt), and Antarctic sea ice (0.9 Tt). It has taken just 3.2 % of the excess energy Earth has absorbed due to climate warming to cause this ice loss.
Satellite observations are the best method for tracking ice loss, because the cryosphere is vast...
