Ocean contributes to the melting of the Jakobshavn Glacier front |
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Authors: | Wang Kaijia Cheng Xiao Chen Zhuoqi Hui Fengming Liu Yan Tian Ying |
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Institution: | 1.College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China ;2.School of Geospatial Engineering and Science, Sun Yat-Sen University & Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, 519000, China ;3.University Corporation for Polar Research, Beijing, 100875, China ; |
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Abstract: | The Jakobshavn Glacier (JG) in Greenland is one of the most active glaciers in the world.It was close to balance before 1997 but this was followed by a sudden transition to rapid thinning.The reason for the change remains unclear.In this study,The NASA Pre-IceBridge ice thickness data are collected to monitor the melting of JG front.The surface elevation decreased by around 90 m from 1995 to 2002 on the floating front.A distributed energy balance model is developed to estimate the energy balance of JG front in the past 30 years (1986-2016).The results indicate that multi-year average energy fluxes absorbed by the floating front of JG from the ocean were about 500 W m 2 from 1986 to 2016.This is approximately two times of the energy fluxes from atmosphere during the same period.The energy fluxes from the ocean increased from 200 to 600 W m 2during the period from 1990 to 1998 while energy fluxes from the atmosphere remained stable at about 250 W m 2.These results demonstrate that ocean contributes more to the melting of the JG front,and suggest that bottom surface melting must have a profound influence on marine-terminating glacier dynamics. |
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Keywords: | Jakobshavn Glacier Front thinning Energy balance Greenland glaciers Ocean forcing |
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