Ice mass budget of Greenland –a process study in Qaanaaq drainage basin–

Greenland Ice Sheet is the earth's second largest ice mass, which holds water volume equivalent to 6 m of sea level rise. The ice sheet is currently losing mass at a rate increasing since the beginning of 21st century. The mass loss of the ice sheet is attributed to increasing surface melt and accelerated ice discharge from outlet glaciers. Rising temperature is the key driver of the melt increase, but accurate evaluation of surface mass balance over Greenalnd is still difficult because field data is lacking and not uniformly distributed. Recent observations have shown many glaciers are speeding up and discharging more ice than before. However, the mechanism of the speed up is not well constrained.

To quantify the current ice mass loss in Greenland and better predict its future, we have established a research project since 2011. We set a relatively small drainage basin as a study site and measure three important processes which control ice mass budget, accumulation, melt, and calving flux. The results of the measurements are used to evaluate the ice mass loss of the basin as well as to understand details of the mass balance and dynamic processes. Our goal is to provide accurate figures of current and future ice mass change in Greenland based on detailed field and satellite observations as well as numerical modeling.

This project is running under GRENE Arctic Climate Change Research Project. GRENE is a Japanese initiative to investigate rapidly changing Arctic and its influence to global environment. Our Greenland project is effort of Japanese snow and ice research community to contribute the study goal of GRENE. Additional funding is granted by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 26550001.

Qaanaaq –study site–
Field campaign 2012
Field campaign 2013
Field campaign 2014
Field campaign 2015
Project members
Meeting