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| Titel |
Increasing mass loss from Greenland's Mittivakkat Gletscher |
| VerfasserIn |
S. H. Mernild, N. T. Knudsen, W. H. Lipscomb, J. C. Yde, J. K. Malmros, B. Hasholt, B. H. Jakobsen |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1994-0416
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: The Cryosphere ; 5, no. 2 ; Nr. 5, no. 2 (2011-04-14), S.341-348 |
| Datensatznummer |
250002427
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/tc-5-341-2011.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Warming in the Arctic during the past several decades has caused glaciers to
thin and retreat, and recent mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet is well
documented. Local glaciers peripheral to the ice sheet are also retreating,
but few mass-balance observations are available to quantify that retreat and
determine the extent to which these glaciers are out of equilibrium with
present-day climate. Here, we document record mass loss in 2009/10 for the
Mittivakkat Gletscher (henceforth MG), the only local glacier in Greenland
for which there exist long-term observations of both the surface mass
balance and glacier front fluctuations. We attribute this mass loss
primarily to record high mean summer (June–August) temperatures in
combination with lower-than-average winter precipitation. Also, we use the
15-yr mass-balance record to estimate present-day and equilibrium
accumulation-area ratios for the MG. We show that the glacier is
significantly out of balance and will likely lose at least 70% of its
current area and 80% of its volume even in the absence of further climate
changes. Temperature records from coastal stations in Southeast Greenland
suggest that recent MG mass losses are not merely a local phenomenon, but
are indicative of glacier changes in the broader region. Mass-balance
observations for the MG therefore provide unique documentation of the
general retreat of Southeast Greenland's local glaciers under ongoing
climate warming. |
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