Research Article

Increasing water vapor transport to the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed using self‐organizing maps

Published: 2016-9-16

Journal: Geophysical Research Letters

DOI: 10.1002/2016gl070424

Abstract

The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has been losing mass in recent decades, with an acceleration in mass loss since 2000. In this study, we apply a self‐organizing map classification to integrated vapor transport data from the ERA‐Interim reanalysis to determine if these GrIS mass loss trends are linked to increases in moisture transport to Greenland. We find that “moist” days (i.e., days featuring anomalously intense water vapor transport to Greenland) were significantly more common during 2000–2015 compared to 1979–1994. Furthermore, the two most intense GrIS melt seasons during the last 36 years were either preceded by a record percentage of moist winter days (2010) or occurred during a summer with a record frequency of moist days (2012). We hypothesize that moisture transport events alter the GrIS energy budget by increasing downwelling longwave radiation and turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent energy.

Faculty Members

  • Rohi Muthyala - Department of Geography, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey Piscataway New Jersey USA
  • Joshua J. Rosen - Climatology Research Laboratory, Department of Geography University of Georgia Athens Georgia USA
  • Kyle S. Mattingly - Climatology Research Laboratory, Department of Geography University of Georgia Athens Georgia USA
  • Thomas L. Mote - Climatology Research Laboratory, Department of Geography University of Georgia Athens Georgia USA
  • Craig A. Ramseyer - Department of Geography and Geosciences Salisbury University Salisbury Maryland USA

Themes

  • Climate change and its impact on ice sheets
  • Energy dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet
  • Moisture transport and its effects on melting
  • Seasonal variations in climate and ice melt
  • Trends in water vapor transport

Categories

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