Centennial Response of Greenland's Three Largest Outlet Glaciers

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2020 Nov 18

PMID 33203883

Citations 4

Authors

Shfaqat A Khan

Anders A Bjork

Jonathan L Bamber

Mathieu Morlighem

Michael Bevis

Kurt H Kjaer

Jeremie Mouginot

Anja Lokkegaard

David M Holland

Andy Aschwanden

Bao Zhang

Veit Helm

Niels J Korsgaard

William Colgan

Nicolaj K Larsen

Lin Liu

Karina Hansen

Valentina Barletta

Trine S Dahl-Jensen

Anne Sofie Sondergaard

Beata M Csatho

Ingo Sasgen

Jason Box

Toni Schenk

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest land ice contributor to sea level rise. This will continue in the future but at an uncertain rate and observational estimates are limited to the last few decades. Understanding the long-term glacier response to external forcing is key to improving projections. Here we use historical photographs to calculate ice loss from 1880-2012 for Jakobshavn, Helheim, and Kangerlussuaq glacier. We estimate ice loss corresponding to a sea level rise of 8.1 ± 1.1 millimetres from these three glaciers. Projections of mass loss for these glaciers, using the worst-case scenario, Representative Concentration Pathways 8.5, suggest a sea level contribution of 9.1-14.9 mm by 2100. RCP8.5 implies an additional global temperature increase of 3.7 °C by 2100, approximately four times larger than that which has taken place since 1880. We infer that projections forced by RCP8.5 underestimate glacier mass loss which could exceed this worst-case scenario.

Citing Articles

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Huiban F, Millan R, Kjeldsen K, Andresen C, Domgaard M, Dehecq A Nat Commun. 2024; 15(1):9976.

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Extensive inland thinning and speed-up of Northeast Greenland Ice Stream.

Khan S, Choi Y, Morlighem M, Rignot E, Helm V, Humbert A Nature. 2022; 611(7937):727-732.

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No general stability conditions for marine ice-sheet grounding lines in the presence of feedbacks.

Sergienko O Nat Commun. 2022; 13(1):2265.

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Accelerated mass loss of Himalayan glaciers since the Little Ice Age.

Lee E, Carrivick J, Quincey D, Cook S, James W, Brown L Sci Rep. 2021; 11(1):24284.

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