The Greenland ice sheet sits atop the world's largest island and holds the equivalent of 7.4 m of potential sea level rise (Morlighem et al. 2017). Following a period of relative stability from the 1970s to early 1990s, the ice sheet began losing ice at an accelerating rate and has now experienced annual net ice loss every year since 1998 (Mouginot et al. 2019). The largest annual mass losses since regular monitoring began in the 1950s occurred in 2012 and 2019, with losses of -464 ± 62 Gt and -532 ± 58 Gt, respectively (Sasgen et al. 2020; estimates including all Greenland glaciers and peripheral ice caps and excluding Ellesmere Island). The record ice loss in 2019 is equivalent to ~1.5 mm global sea level rise. Total ice loss in 2020 (-293 ± 66 Gt) is substantially less than these record years, in part due to cooler summer surface air temperatures and relatively bright surface conditions in the central regions. Overall, the number of melt days was slightly above average but with large regional variation.
Thoman, Richard L.; Richter-Menge, Jacqueline; Druckenmiller, Matthew L.;
Corporate Authors:
Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (U.S.). International Arctic Research Center. University of Alaska Fairbanks. National Snow and Ice Data Center (U.S.). University of Colorado Boulder. United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Global Ocean Observing System. Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (U.S.). Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (U.S.). Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (Fort Collins, Colo.).
Published Date:
2020
Series:
Arctic Report Card
Description:
The Arctic Report Card (ARC) provides an annual update on the state of the Arctic's climate and environment as well as highlights of Arctic science news of the past year. ARC2020 features 16 essays, 11 of which provide updates on a wide range of Arct...
United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.
Published Date:
2017
Series:
PC1705
Description:
This document summarizes the data obtained with the Sentry AUV during the PC1705 2017-demopoulos cruise. At the end of this cruise Amanda Demopoulos was provided with a copy of all the Sentry data from this cruise and the best \at-sea" data products ...
United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.
Published Date:
2019
Series:
RB-1903
Description:
The RB1903 expedition on board the NOAA Ship Ron Brown with the ROV Jason is the fifth cruise of the project, and the second first submersible sampling cruise. The primary goals of this cruise are as follows: 1. Exploration of new sites and new areas...
United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.
Published Date:
2017
Series:
PC1705
Description:
This document summarizes operations with the Sentry autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) during the PC1705 Demopoulos cruise. Included in this report is the vehicle conguration; basic vehicle and sensor performance; and post-dive reports (with summary...
Thoman, Richard L.; Richter-Menge, Jacqueline; Druckenmiller, Matthew L.;
Corporate Authors:
Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (U.S.). International Arctic Research Center. University of Alaska Fairbanks. National Snow and Ice Data Center (U.S.). University of Colorado Boulder. United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Global Ocean Observing System. Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (U.S.). Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (U.S.). Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (Fort Collins, Colo.).
Published Date:
2020
Series:
Arctic Report Card
Description:
The Arctic Report Card (ARC) provides an annual update on the state of the Arctic's climate and environment as well as highlights of Arctic science news of the past year. ARC2020 features 16 essays, 11 of which provide updates on a wide range of Arct...
Richter-Menge, Jacqueline; Druckenmiller, Matthew L.; Thoman, Richard L.;
Corporate Authors:
United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. University of Alaska Fairbanks. Institute of Northern Engineering. National Snow and Ice Data Center (U.S.). Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (U.S.). International Arctic Research Center.
Published Date:
2020
Series:
Arctic Report Card
Description:
First issued in 2006 to address the need for timelier communication of Arctic change to a broad audience, Arctic Report Card (ARC) 2020 marks the 15th anniversary of this annual, peer-reviewed publication. In recognition of this milestone, the ARC202...
United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. University of Toronto. Department of Physics. Ilmatieteen laitos (Finland) / Finnish Meteorological Institute.
Published Date:
2020
Series:
Arctic Report Card
Description:
Snow covers the Arctic land surface (land areas north of 60° N) for up to 9 months each year, and influences the surface energy budget, ground thermal regime, and freshwater budget of the Arctic (Brown et al. 2017). Snow also interacts with vegetati...
United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Yale University. Colorado State University.
Published Date:
2020
Series:
Arctic Report Card
Description:
Summer sea surface temperatures (SST) in the Arctic Ocean are driven mainly by the amount of incoming solar radiation absorbed by the sea surface. Solar warming of the Arctic surface ocean is influenced by the distribution of sea ice (with greater wa...
United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Global Monitoring Laboratory (U.S.)
Published Date:
2020
Series:
Arctic Report Card
Description:
For almost half a century, some of the most important observations of the changing Arctic climate have been captured in a temporary structure at the northernmost tip of the United States. NOAA's Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory (BRW) is locate...
File Type:
[PDF - 908.75 KB]
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