Initial in situ measurements of perennial meltwater storage in the Greenland firn aquifer

Geophysical Research Letters

Volumn 41, Issue 1, 2014, Pages 81-85

  Koenig, Lora S ^a   Miège, Clément ^b   Forster, Richard R ^b   Brucker, Ludovic ^a,c  

^a NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF UTAH   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITIES SPACE RESEARCH ASSOCIATION   (United States)

Author keywords

Greenland perennial firn aquifer; mass balance; meltwater

Indexed keywords

DENSITY PROFILE; GREENLAND; GREENLAND ICE SHEET; HEAT RESERVOIRS; IN-SITU MEASUREMENT; MASS BALANCE; MELTWATER; SOUTHEAST GREENLAND;

RADAR MEASUREMENT; RESERVOIRS (WATER); SEA LEVEL;

AQUIFERS;

AQUIFER; FIRN; GLACIAL HYDROLOGY; MELTWATER; NUMERICAL MODEL; WATER DEPTH;

ARCTIC; GREENLAND;

EID: 84896692626     PISSN: 00948276     EISSN: 19448007     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/2013GL058083     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. Bøggild, C. E., R. Forsberg, and, N. Reeh, (2005), Meltwater retention in a transect across the Greenland ice sheet, Ann. Glaciol., 40 (1), 169-173, doi: 10.3189/172756405781813546.
2. Burgess, E. W., R. R. Forster, J. E. Box, E. Mosley-Thompson, D. H. Bromwich, R. C. Bales, and, L. C. Smith, (2010), A spatially calibrated model of annual accumulation rate on the Greenland Ice Sheet (1958-2007), J. Geophys. Res., 115, F02004, doi: 10.1029/2009JF001293.
3. Cuffey, K. M., and, W. S. B. Paterson, (2010), The transformation of snow to ice, in Physics of Glaciers, 4th ed., pp. 11-28, Butterworth-Heinemann, Burlington, Mass.
4. de Woul, M., R. Hock, M. Braun, T. Thorsteinsson, T. Jõhannesson, and, S. Halldõrsdõttir, (2006), Firn layer impact on glacial runoff: A case study at Hofsjökull, Iceland, Hydrol. Processes, 20 (10), 2171-2185, doi: 10.1002/hyp.6201.
5. Forster, R. R., et al. (2013), Extensive liquid meltwater storage in firn within the Greenland ice sheet, Nat. Geosci., in press.
6. Fountain, A. G., (1989), The storage of water in, and hydraulic characteristics of, the firn of South Cascade Glacier, Washington State, U.S.A, Ann. Glaciol., 13, 69-75.
7. Hall, D. K., J. C. Comiso, N. E. DiGirolamo, C. A. Shuman, J. E. Box, and, L. S. Koenig, (2013), Variability in the surface temperature and melt extent of the Greenland ice sheet from MODIS, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, 2114-2120, doi: 10.1002/grl.50240.
8. Hanna, E., et al. (2013), Ice-sheet mass balance and climate change, Nature, 498 (7452), 51-59, doi: 10.1038/nature12238.
9. Harper, J., N. Humphrey, W. T. Pfeffer, J. Brown, and, X. Fettweis, (2012), Greenland ice-sheet contribution to sea-level rise buffered by meltwater storage in firn, Nature, 491 (7423), 240-243, doi: 10.1038/nature11566.
10. Herron, M. M., and, C. C. Langway, (1980), Firn densification: An empirical model, J. Glaciol., 25 (93), 373-385.
11. Hörhold, M. W., S. Kipfstuhl, F. Wilhelms, J. Freitag, and, A. Frenzel, (2011), The densification of layered polar firn, J. Geophys. Res., 116, F01001, doi: 10.1029/2009JF001630.
12. Howat, I. M., A. Negrete, T. A. Scambos, and, T. Haran, (2013), A high-resolution elevation model for the Greenland Ice Sheet from combined stereoscopic and photoclinometric data.
13. Humphrey, N. F., J. T. Harper, and, W. T. Pfeffer, (2012), Thermal tracking of meltwater retention in Greenland's accumulation area, J. Geophys. Res., 117, F01010, doi: 10.1029/2011JF002083.
14. Krabill, W. B., (2012), IceBridge ATM L2 icessn elevation, slope, and roughness, Boulder, Colo.: NASA DAAC at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
15. Leuschen, C., (2012), IceBridge accumulation radar L1B geolocated radar echo strength profiles. April-May 2012, Boulder, Colo.: NASA DAAC at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
16. Miège, C., R. R. Forster, J. E. Box, E. W. Burgess, J. R. McConnell, D. R. Pasteris, and, V. B. Spikes, (2013), Southeast Greenland high accumulation rates derived from firn cores and ground-penetrating radar, Ann. Glaciol., 54 (63), 322-332, doi: 10.3189/2013AoG63A358.
17. Nghiem, S. V., D. K. Hall, T. L. Mote, M. Tedesco, M. R. Albert, K. Keegan, C. A. Shuman, N. E. DiGirolamo, and, G. Neumann, (2012), The extreme melt across the Greenland ice sheet in 2012, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L20502, doi: 10.1029/2012GL053611.
18. Nye, J. F., (1976), Water flow in glaciers: Jokulhlaups, tunnels, and veins, J. Glaciol., 17 (76), 181-207.
19. Rennermalm, A. K., et al. (2013), Understanding Greenland ice sheet hydrology using an integrated multi-scale approach, Environ. Res. Lett., 8 (1), 015017, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/015017.
20. Shepherd, A., et al. (2012), A reconciled estimate of ice-sheet mass balance, Science, 338 (6111), 1183-1189, doi: 10.1126/science.1228102.
21. van Angelen, J. H., J. T. M. Lenaerts, M. R. van den Broeke, X. Fettweis, and, E. van Meijgaard, (2013), Rapid loss of firn pore space accelerates 21st century Greenland mass loss, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, 2109-2113, doi: 10.1002/grl.50490.
22. van den Broeke, M., J. Bamber, J. Ettema, E. Rignot, E. Schrama, W. J. van de Berg, E. van Meijgaard, I. Velicogna, and, B. Wouters, (2009), Partitioning recent Greenland mass loss, Science, 326 (5955), 984-986, doi: 10.1126/science.1178176.
23. Zwally, H. J., W. Abdalati, T. Herring, K. Larson, J. Saba, and, K. Steffen, (2002), Surface melt-induced acceleration of Greenland ice-sheet flow, Science, 297 (5579), 218-222, doi: 10.1126/science.1072708.