Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Loss and Outlet Glacier Dynamics from Laser Altimetry Record (1993-2013) (Invited)

Comprehensive monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) by satellite observations has revealed increasing mass loss since the late 1990s. Dynamic processes have been responsible for as much as half of this estimated loss, including ice flow adjustments to past climate variations and contemporary atmospheric and oceanic forcings. Dynamical processes act on different spatial and temporal scales and can cause non-linear changes, even on short, sub-decadal time scales. Quantitative investigation of these processes is imperative for improving ice sheet models and sea-level predictions. Our 1992-2011 altimetry record has shown that dynamic thinning substantially contributes to mass loss. The large spatial and temporal variations of dynamic mass loss and widespread intermittent thinning indicated the complexity of ice sheet response to climate forcing and points to the need of continuing monitoring of the GrIS at high spatial resolution. Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) and Laser Vegetation and Ice Sensor (LVIS) airborne laser altimetry measurements, acquired by NASA's IceBridge mission, allowed us to extend the altimetry record to 2013. We generated a record of ice thickness and mass change of the GrIS spanning the period of 1992-2013, reconstructed at several thousand locations using the Surface Elevation Reconstruction and Change detection (SERAC) approach. Elevation changes are corrected for Glacial Isostatic Adjustment and partitioned into climate and ice dynamics induced components. We present the evolution of ice dynamics and climate induced mass loss of the major GrIS drainage basins in 2003-2013 to investigate their contributions to sea-level change. The detailed record of outlet glacier elevation change is consistent with the propagation of dynamic thinning or thickening initiated at lower elevations. We focus our attention to SE and NE Greenland. In SE Greenland we investigate if thinning continued on fast flowing SE Greenland glaciers (e.g., Koge Bugt, A.P. Bernstorff Glacier) after the brief period of thickening observed in 2006-2009. Increasing thinning would imply that earlier decrease in dynamic mass loss represented a short-term trend, rather than a new balance state of the ice sheet. In NE Greenland, continuing thinning at the grounding zones of Ryder, Zachariae and Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glaciers could lead to retreat, flow acceleration and increasing mass loss as the ice plains buttressing these glaciers will become ungrounded in a region where the bed is under sea level.