Atlantic Water warming increases melt below Northeast Greenland’s last floating ice tongue

Claudia Wekerle (), Rebecca McPherson, Wilken-Jon von Appen, Qiang Wang, Ralph Timmermann, Patrick Scholz, Sergey Danilov, Qi Shu and Torsten Kanzow
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Claudia Wekerle: Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Rebecca McPherson: Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Wilken-Jon von Appen: Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Qiang Wang: Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Ralph Timmermann: Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Patrick Scholz: Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Sergey Danilov: Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Qi Shu: Ministry of Natural Resources
Torsten Kanzow: Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The 79 North Glacier (79NG) features Greenland’s largest floating ice tongue. Even though its extent has not changed significantly in recent years, observations have indicated a major thinning of the ice tongue from below. Both ocean warming and an increase in subglacial discharge from the ice sheet induced by atmospheric warming could increase the basal melt; however, available observations alone cannot tell which of these is the main driver. Here, we employ a global simulation which explicitly resolves the ocean circulation in the cavity with 700 m resolution to disentangle the impact of the ocean and atmosphere. We find that the interannual variability of basal melt below 79NG over the past 50 years is mainly associated with changes in the temperature of the Atlantic Intermediate Water inflow, which can be traced back across the Northeast Greenland continental shelf to the eastern Fram Strait with a lag of 3 years.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45650-z

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