Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Mass Loss: Recent Developments in Observation and Modeling

• DOI: 10.1007/s40641-017-0084-8
• Publication Date: 2017-11-06T23:39:19Z
• Authors: Michiel van den B...; Jason Box; Xavier Fettweis; Edward Hanna; Brice Noël; Marco Tedesco; Dirk van As; Willem Jan van de...; Leo van Kampenhout
• Keywords: Greenland ice sheet; Meltwater; Glacier mass balance; Albedo (alchemy)

Surface processes currently dominate Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) mass loss. We review recent developments in the observation and modeling of GrIS surface balance (SMB), published after July 2012 deadline for Fifth Assessment Report Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5). Since IPCC AR5, our understanding SMB has further improved, but new observational model studies have also revealed that temporal spatial variability many are still poorly quantified understood, e.g., bio-albedo, formation lenses their impact lateral meltwater transport, heterogeneous vertical transport ('piping'), atmospheric-circulation changes mixed-phase clouds energy balance, magnitude turbulent heat exchange over rough surfaces. As a result, these only schematically or not at all included models used to assess predict future