Increased Runoff from Melt from the Greenland Ice Sheet: A Response to Global Warming

Abstract

The authors attribute significantly increased Greenland summer warmth and Greenland Ice Sheet melt and runoff since 1990 to global warming. Southern Greenland coastal and Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures were uncorrelated between the 1960s and early 1990s but were significantly positively correlated thereafter. This relationship appears to have been modulated by the North Atlantic Oscillation, whose summer index was significantly (negatively) correlated with southern Greenland summer temperatures until the early 1990s but not thereafter. Significant warming in southern Greenland since ∼1990, as also evidenced from Swiss Camp on the west flank of the ice sheet, therefore reflects general Northern Hemisphere and global warming. Summer 2003 was the warmest since at least 1958 in coastal southern Greenland. The second warmest coastal summer 2005 had the most extensive anomalously warm conditions over the ablation zone of the ice sheet, which caused a record melt extent. The year 2006 was the t... Abstract The authors attribute significantly increased Greenland summer warmth and Greenland Ice Sheet melt and runoff since 1990 to global warming. Southern Greenland coastal and Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures were uncorrelated between the 1960s and early 1990s but were significantly positively correlated thereafter. This relationship appears to have been modulated by the North Atlantic Oscillation, whose summer index was significantly (negatively) correlated with southern Greenland summer temperatures until the early 1990s but not thereafter. Significant warming in southern Greenland since ∼1990, as also evidenced from Swiss Camp on the west flank of the ice sheet, therefore reflects general Northern Hemisphere and global warming. Summer 2003 was the warmest since at least 1958 in coastal southern Greenland. The second warmest coastal summer 2005 had the most extensive anomalously warm conditions over the ablation zone of the ice sheet, which caused a record melt extent. The year 2006 was the t...