Modelled and observed present-day state of the Jakobshavn Isbræ, west Greenland

Abstract:

Jakobshavn Isbræ located in west Greenland drains approximately 7.5 % of the area of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS). Understanding its sensitivity to climatic forcing is critical for assessing mass balance of the GrIS. Here we use a high-resolution, three dimensional and time-dependent regional outlet glacier model developed as part of the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM) forced by climatology datasets from RACMO2 to model present-day state of Jakobshavn Isbræ. Our choice of modelling consists of a forward integration in time (hindcasting) for 1990-2012 with monthly climatic forcing. To assess the modeled mass change, we use observed ice volume change from airborne and satellite laser altimetry from ATM, ICESat, and LVIS during 1997-2013 and convert to mass change. However, the airborne and satellite measurements are conducted few times per year, and may provide yearly mass loss rates only. To assess weekly to monthly scale mass variability, we use measurements of bedrock displacement from permanent GPS sites during 2005-2013. The GPS data provide daily to monthly scale estimates of bedrock displacements caused by the earth’s elastic response to ice mass change from Jakobshavn Isbræ. Additionally, we assess modeled ice velocities (and velocity changes) with observed velocities obtained from measurements of ice motion by satellite interferometric synthetic-aperture radar (InSAR) data from the RADARSAT-1 satellite.

Our results show good agreement between modeled and observed mass change and velocity change from weekly to long-term timespan. Both model and observations show huge mass loss anomalies in 2010 and 2012 caused by enhanced melting during summer months.