Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin (Jul 2019)

Greenland ice sheet mass balance assessed by PROMICE (1995–2015)

  • William Colgan,
  • Kenneth D Mankoff,
  • Kristian K Kjeldsen,
  • Anders A Bjørk,
  • Jason E Box,
  • Sebastian B Simonsen,
  • Louise S Sørensen,
  • S. Abbas Khan,
  • Anne M Solgaard,
  • Rene Forsberg,
  • Henriette Skourup,
  • Lars Stenseng,
  • Steen S Kristensen,
  • Sine M Hvidegaard,
  • Michele Citterio,
  • Nanna Karlsson,
  • Xavier Fettweis,
  • Andreas P Ahlstrøm,
  • Signe B Andersen,
  • Dirk van As,
  • Robert S Fausto

DOI
https://doi.org/10.34194/GEUSB-201943-02-01
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 43
p. e2019430201

Abstract

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The Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) has measured ice-sheet elevation and thickness via repeat airborne surveys circumscribing the ice sheet at an average elevation of 1708 ± 5 m (Sørensen et al. 2018). We refer to this 5415 km survey as the ‘PROMICE perimeter’. Here, we assess ice-sheet mass balance following the input-output approach of Andersen et al. (2015). We estimate ice-sheet output, or the ice discharge across the ice-sheet grounding line, by applying downstream corrections to the ice flux across the PROMICE perimeter. We subtract this ice discharge from ice-sheet input, or the area-integrated, ice sheet surface mass balance, estimated by a regional climate model. While Andersen et al. (2015) assessed ice-sheet mass balance in 2007 and 2011, this updated input-output assessment now estimates the annual sea-level rise contribution from eighteen sub-sectors of the Greenland ice sheet over the 1995–2015 period.

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