C51A:
Advances in Observing and Modeling Ice Sheet and Ice Shelf Surface Mass Balance: Past, Present, and Future I


Submit an Abstract to this Session


Session ID#: 60377

Session Description:
A reliable estimate of surface mass balance (SMB), including its components, change, and drivers, is pivotal for understanding past, present, and future ice sheet mass balance and sea level change.  Large temporal SMB variability, predominantly driven by snowfall anomalies, challenges the detection of longer-term trends in Antarctic mass balance.  As the atmosphere warms, episodes of pervasive melt are becoming frequent over Greenland Ice Sheet and Antarctic ice shelves.  Melt water can be partly stored in firn, crevasses, surface or buried ponds and rivers, impacting hydrofracture, cryohydrologic warming, firn pore-space depletion, and snow/ice darkening. Our assessment of ice sheet mass balance depends on the accurate representation of these processes in ice sheet and climate models and evaluation using observations.  We invite papers that study processes such as snowfall, snow redistribution, firn densification, meltwater retention, surface water storage and drainage, and albedo, using remote sensing, ground based measurements, and modeling approaches.
Primary Convener:  Indrani Das, Lamont -Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, United States
Conveners:  Jan Lenaerts, University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Boulder, CO, United States, Brice Noel, Utrecht University, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands and Brooke Medley, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Primary Liaison:  Jan Lenaerts, University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Boulder, CO, United States
Chairs:  Indrani Das, Lamont -Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, United States and Jan Lenaerts, University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Boulder, CO, United States
OSPA Liaison:  Brice Noel, Utrecht University, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

Cross-Listed:
  • A - Atmospheric Sciences
  • H - Hydrology
Index Terms:

0726 Ice sheets [CRYOSPHERE]
0728 Ice shelves [CRYOSPHERE]
0762 Mass balance [CRYOSPHERE]
0776 Glaciology [CRYOSPHERE]

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Elizabeth Ruth Thomas, NERC British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom and Brooke Medley, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Nicole Jeanne Schlegel, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, United States, Eric Y Larour, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, United States, Alex S Gardner, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States and Ala Khazendar, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, United States
Marion Donat-Magnin, CNRS, Paris Cedex 16, France, Nicolas Jourdain, CNRS - Université Grenoble Alpes - Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement, Saint-Martin d’Hères, France, Cecile Agosta, University of Liège, Geography, Liège, Belgium, Hubert Gallée, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France and Charles Amory, Université de Liège, Liege, Belgium
Lynn Montgomery, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, United States and Lora Koenig, Lockheed Martin Space, Denver, CO, United States
Johnny Ryan, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States, Laurence C Smith, Brown University, Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES); Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences (DEEPS), Providence, RI, United States, Dirk van As, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, København K, Denmark, Sarah W Cooley, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States, Matthew G Cooper, University of California, Los Angeles, Geography, Los Angeles, United States, Lincoln H H Pitcher, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States and Alun Hubbard II, CAGE - Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Department of Geoscience, Tromsø, Norway
Xavier Fettweis, Université de Liège, Liege, Belgium and the SMBMIP team
Yara Mohajerani, University of California Irvine, Department of Earth System Science, Irvine, United States, Isabella Velicogna, UCI, Irvine, United States and Eric J Rignot, University of California Irvine, Department of Earth System Science, Irvine, CA, United States
Luke D Trusel, Rowan University, Geology, Glassboro, NJ, United States, Allen Pope, International Arctic Science Committee IASC Executive Secretariat, Akureyri, Iceland, Mahsa S Moussavi, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States and Leanne T Cioffi, Rowan University, Geography, Planning, and Sustainability, Glassboro, NJ, United States

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