IceBridge Radar as a Tool for Understanding Accumulation Variability throughout the Western Greenland Ice Sheet

Abstract:

Understanding the mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) in a warming climate is of critical interest to scientists and the general public in the context of future sea-level rise. The mass balance of the GIS has been increasingly negative over recent decades, with a conservative estimate of ice sheet mass loss of 2000 Gt yr^-1 over the 1988-2014 period. Snow accumulation, the critical input to surface mass balance, varies through time and regionally around Greenland and from the coast to interior, but is constrained by relatively few observations. An improved understanding of temporal and spatial snow accumulation variability will thus reduce uncertainties in GIS mass balance models and sea-level rise projections. Here we quantify spatial and temporal variations in snow accumulation in central and southwest Greenland using data from NASA’s Operation IceBridge Accumulation Radar. We estimate depth-density and depth-age relationships using a Herron-Langway density model and Nye flow model, which are iteratively calculated at 50 km intervals along each radar line. We then trace isochrones to calculate spatial and temporal variability in average snow accumulation along several flight paths throughout central and southwestern Greenland. Depth-density, depth-age, and snow accumulation calculations are calibrated at Summit using data from the GISP2, Katie, and SM07C ice cores. Accumulation results will be verified by a series of snow pits, shallow firn cores, and ice-penetrating radar profiles collected on the Greenland Traverse for Accumulation and Climate Studies (GreenTrACS) through southwest Greenland during spring 2016 and 2017.