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Land Ice Freshwater Budget of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans: 1. Data, Methods, and Results

The freshwater budget of the Arctic and sub‐polar North Atlantic Oceans has been changing due, primarily, to increased river runoff, declining sea ice and enhanced melting of Arctic land ice. Since the mid‐1990s this latter component has experienced a pronounced increase. We use a combination of sat...

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Autores principales: Bamber, J. L., Tedstone, A. J., King, M. D., Howat, I. M., Enderlin, E. M., van den Broeke, M. R., Noel, B.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5993240/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29938150
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017JC013605
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author Bamber, J. L.
Tedstone, A. J.
King, M. D.
Howat, I. M.
Enderlin, E. M.
van den Broeke, M. R.
Noel, B.
author_facet Bamber, J. L.
Tedstone, A. J.
King, M. D.
Howat, I. M.
Enderlin, E. M.
van den Broeke, M. R.
Noel, B.
author_sort Bamber, J. L.
collection PubMed
description The freshwater budget of the Arctic and sub‐polar North Atlantic Oceans has been changing due, primarily, to increased river runoff, declining sea ice and enhanced melting of Arctic land ice. Since the mid‐1990s this latter component has experienced a pronounced increase. We use a combination of satellite observations of glacier flow speed and regional climate modeling to reconstruct the land ice freshwater flux from the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic glaciers and ice caps for the period 1958–2016. The cumulative freshwater flux anomaly exceeded 6,300 ± 316 km(3) by 2016. This is roughly twice the estimate of a previous analysis that did not include glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and which extended only to 2010. From 2010 onward, the total freshwater flux is about 1,300 km(3)/yr, equivalent to 0.04 Sv, which is roughly 40% of the estimated total runoff to the Arctic for the same time period. Not all of this flux will reach areas of deep convection or Arctic and Sub‐Arctic seas. We note, however, that the largest freshwater flux anomalies, grouped by ocean basin, are located in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. The land ice freshwater flux displays a strong seasonal cycle with summer time values typically around five times larger than the annual mean. This will be important for understanding the impact of these fluxes on fjord circulation, stratification, and the biogeochemistry of, and nutrient delivery to, coastal waters.
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spelling pubmed-59932402018-06-20 Land Ice Freshwater Budget of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans: 1. Data, Methods, and Results Bamber, J. L. Tedstone, A. J. King, M. D. Howat, I. M. Enderlin, E. M. van den Broeke, M. R. Noel, B. J Geophys Res Oceans Research Articles The freshwater budget of the Arctic and sub‐polar North Atlantic Oceans has been changing due, primarily, to increased river runoff, declining sea ice and enhanced melting of Arctic land ice. Since the mid‐1990s this latter component has experienced a pronounced increase. We use a combination of satellite observations of glacier flow speed and regional climate modeling to reconstruct the land ice freshwater flux from the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic glaciers and ice caps for the period 1958–2016. The cumulative freshwater flux anomaly exceeded 6,300 ± 316 km(3) by 2016. This is roughly twice the estimate of a previous analysis that did not include glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and which extended only to 2010. From 2010 onward, the total freshwater flux is about 1,300 km(3)/yr, equivalent to 0.04 Sv, which is roughly 40% of the estimated total runoff to the Arctic for the same time period. Not all of this flux will reach areas of deep convection or Arctic and Sub‐Arctic seas. We note, however, that the largest freshwater flux anomalies, grouped by ocean basin, are located in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. The land ice freshwater flux displays a strong seasonal cycle with summer time values typically around five times larger than the annual mean. This will be important for understanding the impact of these fluxes on fjord circulation, stratification, and the biogeochemistry of, and nutrient delivery to, coastal waters. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018-03-05 2018-03 /pmc/articles/PMC5993240/ /pubmed/29938150 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017JC013605 Text en © 2018. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Bamber, J. L.
Tedstone, A. J.
King, M. D.
Howat, I. M.
Enderlin, E. M.
van den Broeke, M. R.
Noel, B.
Land Ice Freshwater Budget of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans: 1. Data, Methods, and Results
title Land Ice Freshwater Budget of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans: 1. Data, Methods, and Results
title_full Land Ice Freshwater Budget of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans: 1. Data, Methods, and Results
title_fullStr Land Ice Freshwater Budget of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans: 1. Data, Methods, and Results
title_full_unstemmed Land Ice Freshwater Budget of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans: 1. Data, Methods, and Results
title_short Land Ice Freshwater Budget of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans: 1. Data, Methods, and Results
title_sort land ice freshwater budget of the arctic and north atlantic oceans: 1. data, methods, and results
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5993240/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29938150
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017JC013605
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