Ilulissat Climate Days, Greenland, 4 June 2015 Greenland – a white spot on the map of the internationally coordinated glacier monitoring? Michael Zemp,

Ilulis

sat C

limat

e D

ays,

Gre

en

lan

d, 4

Ju

ne 2

01

5

Greenland – a white spot on the map of Greenland – a white spot on the map of the internationally coordinated glacier the internationally coordinated glacier

monitoring?monitoring?

Michael Zemp, Richard Armstrong, Florence Fetterer, Isabelle Gärtner-Roer, Martin Hoelzle, Fabia Hüsler, Andreas

Kääb, Jeff Kargel, Nico Mölg, Samuel Nussbaumer, Frank Paul, Bruce Raup

Greenland – a white spot on the map of the int. coordinated glacier monitoring?

www.discover-the-world.co.uk

Glaciers around the GISHow much glacier ice around the GIS?

How fast are these glacier changing?

Do we have a double counting in sea level rise contribution from Greenland?

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

International Council for Science (ICSU):

“A basic requirement for advancing research is free and unrestricted international sharing of high-quality, long-term, and standardized data and information products.”

As a consequence, the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) set in place a Global Terrestrial Network (GTN) for all Essential Climate Variables in support of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

www.gtn-g.org

Glacier distribution around the Greenland Ice Sheet

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

Weidick (1998): >70,000 km2

Weidick (1998)

Glaciers surface area

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

www.gtn-g.org

Weidick (1998): >70,000 km2

Rastner et al. (2012): 20,280 glaciers > 0.05 km2

89,720 km2 (CL0&CL1)

130,076 km2 (CL0&CL1&CL2)

70 Landsat scenes 1999-2002

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

Rastner et al (2012)

Gärtner-Roer et al. (2014)

Glaciers volume

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

Radic & Hock (2010) based on WGI17,865 km3 = 44 mm SLE

Huss & Farinotti (2012) based on RGI19,042 km3 = 47 mm SLE

Radic & Hock (2010) based on WGI17,865 km3 = 44 mm SLE

Huss & Farinotti (2012) based on RGI19,042 km3 = 47 mm SLE

Uncertainty: 30-50%(Gärtner-Roer et al. 2013)

www.gtn-g.org

Glaciers volume

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

Radic & Hock (2010) based on WGI17,865 km3 = 44 mm SLE

Huss & Farinotti (2012) based on RGI19,042 km3 = 47 mm SLE

Uncertainty: 30-50%(Gärtner-Roer et al. 2013)

www.gtn-g.org

Knecht (2014)

Glacier changes

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

Front variations from 78 glaciers Back to mid 19th century

Leclercq et al. (2012)

www.gtn-g.org

Glacier changes

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

Front variations from 78 glaciers Back to mid 19th century

Glaciol. balances from 8 glaciers Mittivakkat since 1995

Freya since 2007

Amitsuloq 1981-90

Geodetic balances from 1 glacier

Flade Isblink Ice Cap 2002-09

www.gtn-g.org

Glacier changes

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

From glaciological and geodetic obs.:

Ba1980s/90s/00s: -0.6/-0.9/-1.1 m w.e. a-1

SLR contribution: 50-100 Gt per year

…but based on very few glaciers!

…representativeness for SLR contr.?

www.gtn-g.org

Zemp et al. (in press)

Glacier changes

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

From glaciological and geodetic obs.:

Ba1980s/90s/00s: -0.6/-0.9/-1.1 m w.e. a-1

SLR contribution: 50-100 Gt per year

…but based on very few glaciers!

…representativeness for SLR contr.?

From ICESat based on Bolch et al. (2013):

SLR contribution 2003-08…

..28 Gt per year for C0&C1

..41 Gt per year for C0&C1&C2

=> 2.5 times the specific mass loss of the GIS

=> up to 20% of the GIS contribution to SLR

Bolch et al. (2013)

Do we have a double-counting in SLR contribution from Greenland?

Gardner et al. (2013)

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

www.discover-the-world.co.uk

ConclusionsOver the past five years, we have strongly improved our knowledge about glaciers around the Greenland Ice Sheet.

However, we still need…

..more, longer, and richer obs. series

..a better coordination between the glacier and the ice sheet research communities,

Need for glacier data?

(GCOS need a home for the ice sheet data…)

www.gtn-g.org

Kääb et al. (2013)

Elevation changes from ICESat

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions

gtn-glaciers ¦ distribution ¦ changes ¦ conclusions