Modelling heterogeneous meltwater percolation on the Greenland Ice Sheet

Abstract:

The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has experienced an increase of surface meltwater production over the last decades, with the latest record set in the summer of 2012. For current and future ice sheet mass balance assessments, it is important to quantify what part of this meltwater reaches the ocean and contributes to sea level change. Meltwater produced at the surface has several options: it can infiltrate the local firn pack, where it is either stored temporarily or refrozen, or it can run off along the surface or via en-glacial drainage systems. In this study, we focus on the first; more specifically, in which manner meltwater percolates the firn column. Over the past years, GrIS research has shown that meltwater does not infiltrate the firn pack homogeneously (i.e. matrix flow), but that inhomogeneities in horizontal firn layers causes preferential flow paths for meltwater (i.e. piping). Although this process has been observed and studied on a few isolated sites, it has never been examined on the entire GrIS. To do so, we use the firn model IMAU-FDM with new parameterizations for preferential flow, impermeable ice lenses and sub-surface runoff. At the surface, IMAU-FDM is forced with realistic climate data from the regional climate model RACMO2.3. The model results are evaluated with temperatures and density measurements from firn cores across the GrIS. By allowing for heterogeneous meltwater percolation, the model is able to store heat and mass much deeper in the firn column. This is, however, in part counteracted by the inclusion of impermeability of ice lenses, which causes part of the meltwater to run off horizontally.