Summary & Purpose

While global glacier mass balance has decreased rapidly over the last two decades, mass loss has been greatest in regions with marine-terminating glaciers. In Greenland, peripheral glaciers and ice caps (GICs) cover only ~5% of Greenland’s area but contributed ~14-20% of the island’s ice mass loss between 2003-2008. Although Greenland GIC’s mass loss due to surface meltwater runoff have been estimated using atmospheric models, mass loss due to changes in ice discharge into surrounding ocean basins (i.e., dynamic mass loss) remains unquantified. Here, we use the flux gate method to estimate discharge from Greenland’s 585 marine-terminating peripheral glaciers and compute dynamic mass loss as the discharge anomaly relative to the 1985-1998 period. Greenland GIC discharge averages 2.5 Gt/yr from 1985-1998 and abruptly increases to an average of 5.1 Gt/yr from 1999-2018, indicating a -2.6 Gt/yr mass anomaly. This mass loss is driven by synchronous widespread acceleration around Greenland and, unlike the ice sheet, it is not primarily caused by changes in discharge from a small number of glaciers with very large discharge. These estimates indicate that although Greenland GICs are small, they are sensitive to changes in climate and should not be overlooked in future analyses of glacier dynamics and mass loss.

Author Identifier

Ellyn Enderlin, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8266-7719

Date of Publication or Submission

8-2-2021

DOI

https://doi.org/10.18122/geo_data.5.boisestate

Funding Citation

NASA grant 80NSSC19K0976

Single Dataset or Series?

Series

Data Format

*.csv

Data Attributes

The files contain time series of estimated ice discharge and associated uncertainties for 585 glaciers spanning Greenland that are not connected to the ice sheet (i.e., peripheral glaciers and ice caps). Discharge was computed using a flux gate method without corrections for mass loss or gain between the gate and the glacier terminus. Glaciers are organized by row and the columns indicate the BoxID used for easy identification of glaciers, longitude (Greenland Polar Stereo; m), and latitude (Greenland Polar Stereo; m), followed by a column with the discharge for each year from 1985-2018. The header on the columns provides the same metadata.

Time Period

1985-2018

Use Restrictions

Users are free to share, copy, distribute and use the dataset; to create or produce works from the dataset; to adapt, modify, transform and build upon the dataset as long as the user attributes any public use of the dataset, or works produced from the dataset, referencing the author(s) and DOI link. For any use or redistribution of the dataset, or works produced from it, the user must make clear to others the license of the dataset and keep intact any notices on the original dataset.

Disclaimer of Warranty

BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN OR PROVIDED AS PART OF THE SYSTEM FOR ANY PURPOSE. ALL SUCH INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS WITH REGARD TO THIS INFORMATION, INCLUDING ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

IN NO EVENT SHALL BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF INFORMATION AVAILABLE FROM THE SYSTEM.

THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE SYSTEM COULD INCLUDE TECHNICAL INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. CHANGES ARE PERIODICALLY ADDED TO THE INFORMATION HEREIN. COMPANY AND/OR ITS RESPECTIVE SUPPLIERS MAY MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AND/OR CHANGES IN THE PRODUCT(S) AND/OR THE PROGRAM(S) DESCRIBED HEREIN AT ANY TIME, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU.

BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY DOES NOT MAKE ANY ASSURANCES WITH REGARD TO THE ACCURACY OF THE RESULTS OR OUTPUT THAT DERIVES FROM USE OF THE SYSTEM.

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