Journal article
Greenland surface mass-balance observations from the ice-sheet ablation area and local glaciers
Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark1
Aarhus University2
Universidad de Magallanes3
Utrecht University4
Alfred Wegener Institute - Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research5
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research6
Stuttgart Technology University of Applied Sciences7
Hokkaido University8
ARTEK, Section for Arctic Engineering and Sustainable Solutions, Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark9
Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland10
ASIAQ Greenland Survey11
Natural History Museum of Denmark12
University of Manchester13
MeteoSwiss14
University of Copenhagen15
Central Institution for Meteorology and Geodynamics16
...and 6 moreGlacier surface mass-balance measurements on Greenland started more than a century ago, but no compilation exists of the observations from the ablation area of the ice sheet and local glaciers. Such data could be used in the evaluation of modelled surface mass balance, or to document changes in glacier melt independently from model output.
Here, we present a comprehensive database of Greenland glacier surface mass-balance observations from the ablation area of the ice sheet and local glaciers. The database spans the 123 a from 1892 to 2015, contains a total of similar to 3000 measurements from 46 sites, and is openly accessible through the PROMICE web portal (http://www.promice.dk).
For each measurement we provide X, Y and Z coordinates, starting and ending dates as well as quality flags. We give sources for each entry and for all metadata. Two thirds of the data were collected from grey literature and unpublished archive documents. Roughly 60% of the measurements were performed by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS, previously GGU).
The data cover all regions of Greenland except for the southernmost part of the east coast, but also emphasize the importance of long-term time series of which there are only two exceeding 20 a. We use the data to analyse uncertainties in point measurements of surface mass balance, as well as to estimate surface mass-balance profiles for most regions of Greenland.
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Year: | 2016 |
Pages: | 861-887 |
ISSN: | 17275652 and 00221430 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1017/jog.2016.75 |
ORCIDs: | 0000-0002-4919-792X |