Greenland ice sheet motion insensitive to exceptional meltwater forcing

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1315843110
• Publication Date: 2013-11-19T04:49:39Z
• Authors: Andrew J. Tedstone; Peter W. Nienow; Andrew J. Sole; Douglas W. F. Mair; Thomas R. Cowton; Ian D. Bartholomew; Matt A. King
• Keywords: 550; Ice sheet hydrology; Climate; Greenland; Fresh Water; 01 natural sciences; Ice sheet dynamics; 13. Climate action; Geographic Information Systems; Water Movements; Ice sheet melt; Ice Cover; Hydrology; Global positioning systems; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Significance During summer, meltwater generated on the Greenland ice sheet surface accesses the ice sheet bed, lubricating basal motion and resulting in periods of faster ice flow. However, the net impact of varying meltwater volumes upon seasonal and annual ice flow, and thus sea level rise, remains unclear. In 2012, despite record ice sheet runoff, including two extreme melt events, ice at a land-terminating margin flowed more slowly than in the average melt year of 2009, due principally to slower winter flow following faster summer flow. Our findings suggest that annual motion of land-terminating margins of the ice sheet, and thus the projected dynamic contribution of these margins to sea level rise, is insensitive to melt volumes commensurate with temperature projections for 2100.