References

TCD

The Cryosphere Discussions

TCD

1994-0440

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/tcd-6-4101-2012

Brief communication "Important role of the mid-tropospheric atmospheric circulation in the recent surface melt increase over the Greenland ice sheet"

Fettweis

¹ Hanna

² Lang

¹ Belleflamme

¹ Erpicum

¹ Gallée

Laboratory of Climatology, Department of Geography, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, UK

Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE), Grenoble, France

24 09 2012

6 5 4101 4122

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Since 2007, there has been a succession of surface melt records over the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) in continuity of the trend observed since the end of the 1990s towards increasing melt. But, these last two decades are characterized by an increase of negative phases of the North-Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) favouring warmer and drier summers than normal over GrIS. In this context, we use a circulation type classification based on the daily 500 hPa geopotential height to evaluate the role of the atmospheric dynamics in this surface melt acceleration since 20 yr. Due to the lack of direct observations, the interannual melt variability is gauged here by the summer (June-July-August) mean temperature at 700 hPa over Greenland; analogous atmospheric circulations in the past show that ~70% of the 1992–2011 warming at 700 hPa over Greenland has been driven by changes in the atmospheric flow frequencies. Indeed, the occurrence of anticyclones in surface and at 500 hPa centred over the GrIS has doubled since the end of 1990s which induces southerly warm air advection along the Western Greenland coast and over the neighbouring Canadian islands. These changes in the NAO modes explain also why no significant warming has been observed these last five summers over Svalbard, where northerly atmospheric flows are more frequent than before. Therefore, the recent warmer summers over Greenland, Ellesmere and Baffin Islands can not be considered as a long term climate warming but are more rather a consequence of the NAO variability impacting the atmospheric heat transport. While no global model from the CMIP5 database projects consequent changes in NAO through this century, we can not exclude that these changes in NAO are due to global warming.

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