Greenland Archives - Remote Sensing Laboratory at the Department of Geological Sciences at UB

Goal

Estimation of mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet at higher elevations by using a mass budget method

Procedure & Methodology

Mass balance was computed as the difference between the estimated annual total snow accumulation and ice discharge

Outgoing flux is estimated from ice sheet velocity and ice thickness measured around the central part of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Ice velocity and thickness measurements at 161 stations located 30 km apart, at 2000 m elevation that circumnavigates Greenland
Stations are numbered counter-clockwise starting in the northwest corner
Ice velocities were determined from repeat, differential carrier-phase GPS data collected in 1-2 years intervals between 1993 to 1997
Ice thickness was measured by using ice-penetrating radar

Annual snow accumulation is estimated from an observational analysis of ice core and pit data.

Results are presented as mass balance estimates in single gates:

Data from two adjacent stations were combined to form 161 single gate

Mass balance estimates at medium-sized regions:

Adjacent single gates were combined to form 130 medium gates each with a minimum area of 30,000 km2.
The gates were grouped by shifting one traverse station at a time.

Mass balance estimates at large regions:

The single gates were combined to form 12 large gates (A-L) with an average area of approximately 100,000 km2 each.
The maximum numbers of single gates were in gate D with 23 single gates, from station F069 to F096.
The minimum numbers of single gates were in gate C with 6 single gates, from station F096 to F101.

Results

Overall the ice sheets in Greenland are in balance within 10mm/yr; thickening and thinning in different regions.
In the northwest the ice sheet thinned 5 cm/yr, and thickened 2 cm/yr in the northeast.
In the southwest the ice sheet thickened 21 cm/yr, and thinned 30 cm/yr in the southeast

People

University at Buffalo

Dr. Beata Csatho – Point of Contact: E-Mail
Melissa Zelazny
Justin L. Rich
Taehun Yoon

EG&G Services

Robert Thomas

University of Kansas

Prasad Gogineni: Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. E-Mail

Publications

Thomas, R., T. Akins, B. Csatho, M. Fahnestock, P. Gogineni, C. Kim, and J. Sonntag. 2000. Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet at high elevations. Science 289: 426-427.
Thomas, R., B. Csatho, C. Davis, C. Kim, W. Krabill, S. Manizade, J. McConnell and J. Sonntag. 2001. Mass balance of higher-elevation parts of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmosphere 106 (D24) (December): 33707-33716.
Thomas, R., B. Csatho, S. Gogineni, K. Jezek, and K. Kuivinen. 1998. Thickening of the western part of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Journal of Glaciology 44: 653-658.

Field camp near Jakobshavn (in background). Photo by: Bea Csatho

Data Description

Field measurements of the effect of black crustose lichen on reflectance of various rock substrates. The heavy curves correspond to bare rock and the light curves to lichen on the same substrate. Gaps in the curves correspond to the atmospheric water vapor absorption bands, as explained in Vander Veen 2005.

Reflectance spectra of various fructicose lichens as measured in the field (heavy curves) and in the laboratory (light curves) using the same samples.

Reflectance spectra of typical west Greenland tundra vegetation, measured in the field.

Effect of Crustose (unless otherwise noted) lichens on various rock substrates as measured in the laboratory using samples collected in west Greenland. Heavy curves refer to bare rock and light curves to lichen on the same rock sample.