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| Titel |
Clouds enhance Greenland ice sheet meltwater runoff |
| VerfasserIn |
Kristof Van Tricht, Stef Lhermitte, Jan T. M. Lenaerts, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, Tristan S. L'Ecuyer, Brice Noël, Michiel R. van den Broeke, David D. Turner, Nicole P. M. van Lipzig |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2016
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 18 (2016) |
| Datensatznummer |
250133668
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2016-14304.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The Greenland ice sheet has become one of the main contributors to global sea level rise,
predominantly through increased meltwater runoff. The main drivers of Greenland ice sheet
runoff, however, remain poorly understood. Here we show that clouds enhance meltwater
runoff by about one-third relative to clear skies, using a unique combination of active satellite
observations, climate model data and snow model simulations. This impact results from a
cloud radiative effect of 29.5 (±5.2) W m−2. Contrary to conventional wisdom,
however, the Greenland ice sheet responds to this energy through a new pathway by
which clouds reduce meltwater refreezing as opposed to increasing surface melt
directly, thereby accelerating bare-ice exposure and enhancing meltwater runoff.
The high sensitivity of the Greenland ice sheet to both ice-only and liquid-bearing
clouds highlights the need for accurate cloud representations in climate models, to
better predict future contributions of the Greenland ice sheet to global sea level rise. |
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