The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is losing mass at an increasing rate yet mass gain from snowfall still exceeds the loss attributed to surface melt processes on an annual basis. This work assesses the relationship between persistent atmospheric blocking across the Euro‐Atlantic region and enhanced precipitation processes over the central GrIS during June–August and September–November. Results show that the vast majority of snowfall events in the central GrIS coincide with Euro‐Atlantic blocking. During June–August, snowfall events are produced primarily by mixed‐phase clouds (88%) and are linked to a persistent blocking anticyclone over southern Greenland (84%). The blocking anticyclone slowly advects warm, moist air masses into western and southern Greenland, with positive temperature and water vapor anomalies that intensify over the central GrIS. A zonal integrated water vapor transport pattern south of Greenland indicates a southern shift of the North Atlantic storm track associated with the high‐latitude blocking. In contrast, snowfall events during September–November are largely produced by ice‐phase clouds (85%) and are associated with a blocking anticyclone over the Nordic Seas and blocked flow over northern Europe (78%). The blocking anticyclone deflects the westerly North Atlantic storm track poleward and enables the rapid transport of warm, moist air masses up the steep southeastern edge of the GrIS, with positive temperature and water vapor anomalies to the east and southeast of Greenland. These results emphasize the critical role of Euro‐Atlantic blocking in promoting snowfall processes over the central GrIS and the importance of accurate representation of blocking in climate model projections.
The increase in Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) surface runoff since the turn of the century has been linked to a rise in Greenland blocking frequency. However, a range of synoptic patterns can be considered blocked flow and efforts that summarize all blocking types indiscriminately likely fail to capture consequential differences in GrIS response. To account for these differences, we employ ERA5 reanalysis to identify summer blocking using two independent blocking metrics: the Greenland Blocking Index (GBI) and the blocking index of Pelly and Hoskins (2003,
- Award ID(s):
- 1900324
- PAR ID:
- 10376839
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
- Volume:
- 127
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2169-897X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Modèle Atmosphérique Régional (MAR) is a regional climate model that is fully coupled to a one-dimensional surface-atmosphere energy and mass transfer scheme, SISVAT (Soil Ice Snow Vegetation Atmosphere Transfer) (Fettweis et al., 2005, 2020; Lefebre et al., 2005). SISVAT employs a multilayered snowpack model, CROCUS, that simulates meltwater production, percolation, and refreeze (Brun et al., 1989), while also accounting for changes in albedo due to snow metamorphism (Brun et al., 1992). MAR has been extensively verified over the Greenland Ice Sheet and is therefore particularly well suited for analyses of Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance (Fettweis et al., 2011; Fettweis et al., 2020; Lefebre et al. 2005; Mattingly et al. 2020). Brun, E., Martin, E., Simon, V., Gendre, C., and Coléou, C. (1989). An energy and mass model of snow cover suitable for operational avalanche forecasting. Journal of Glaciology, 35, 333. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022143000009254 Brun, E., David, P., Sudul, M., and Brunot, G. (1992). A numerical model to simulate snow-cover stratigraphy for operational avalanche forecasting. Journal of Glaciology, 38(128), 13–22. https://doi.org/10.3189/S0022143000009552 Fettweis, X., Gallée, H., Lefebre, F., and van Ypersele, J.-P. (2005). Greenland surface mass balance simulated by a regional climate model and comparison with satellite-derived data in 1990–1991. Climate Dynamics, 24(6), 623–640. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-005-0010-y Fettweis, X., Tedesco, M., van den Broeke, M., and Ettema, J. (2011). Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (1958–2009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models. The Cryosphere, 5(2), 359–375. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-5-359-2011 Fettweis, X., Hofer, S., Krebs-Kanzow, U., Amory, C., Aoki, T., Berends, C. J., et al. (2020). GrSMBMIP: intercomparison of the modelled 1980–2012 surface mass balance over the Greenland Ice Sheet. The Cryosphere, 14(11), 3935–3958. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3935-2020 Lefebre, F., Fettweis, X., Gallée, H., Van Ypersele, J.-P., Marbaix, P., Greuell, W., and Calanca, P. (2005). Evaluation of a high-resolution regional climate simulation over Greenland. Climate Dynamics, 25(1), 99–116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-005-0005-8 Mattingly, K. S., Mote, T. L., Fettweis, X., van As, D., Van Tricht, K., Lhermitte, S., et al. (2020). Strong summer atmospheric rivers trigger Greenland ice sheet melt through spatially varying surface energy balance and cloud regimes. Journal of Climate, 33(16), 6809–6832. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0835.1more » « less
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