Precipitation over Greenland and its relation to the North Atlantic Oscillation

Bromwich, David H.; Chen, Qiushi; Li, Yufang; Cullather, Richard I.

doi:10.1029/1999jd900373

Cited by 81 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The precipitation rate along the Greenland coast south of 67°N is much higher than that in the adjacent areas (Ohmura & Reeh 1991, Chen et al 1997, Bromwich et al 1999. A comparison of the annual cycle of precipitation off the Greenland coast and other regions is presented in Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional differences in the timing of the spring bloom in the Labrador Sea

Wu¹,

Platt²,

Tang³

et al. 2008

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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The environmental factors that control the timing of the spring bloom in the Labrador Sea were investigated using ocean color data from satellites, historical oceanographic data and a primary production model. From the satellite data, the onset of the spring bloom was found to progress with the season from south to north, with the exception of the northern Labrador Sea. The onset for the northern Labrador Sea occurred at approximately the same time as in the southern Labrador Sea. Two possible factors for the regional differences were examined from the data: irradiance and mixedlayer depth (MLD). The early bloom in the northern Labrador Sea is related to the very shallow mixed layer associated with low-salinity water. The temporal variations of the mean chlorophyll concentration in 4 regions of the Labrador Sea (the Grand Banks, southern, central and northern Labrador Sea) during the growth phase of the spring bloom were modeled using a primary production model with MLD derived from historical temperature-salinity data. The temporal variations, in particular the early bloom in the northern Labrador Sea, were well reproduced by the model. A model sensitivity study showed that the onset of the spring bloom is highly sensitive to MLD. This confirms the finding from the data that MLD is a critical environmental factor for the spring bloom. The availability of the photosynthetically active radiation plays an important role, but is not a determining factor of the early bloom in the northern Labrador Sea. The sensitivity study also showed that pre-bloom oceanographic conditions and attenuation of light in water have a greater effect on the timing in a shallow mixed layer than in a deeper mixed layer. KEY WORDS: Spring bloom · Onset time · Mixed layer depth · Regional difference · Labrador SeaResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional differences in the timing of the spring bloom in the Labrador Sea

Wu¹,

Platt²,

Tang³

et al. 2008

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…The correlations for spring, summer and autumn are, as expected, lower: 0.04, -0.08, and -0.28, respectively, implying no significant effect of the NAO during these seasons. The winter correlation (-0.88) is stronger than the above-mentioned correlations for the NAO and modeled Greenland precipitation (28), implying that the NAO index is a very good proxy for winter precipitation data. Therefore, strongly negative NAO-index conditions lead to increased accumulation and elevation change during wintertime and vice versa.…”

mentioning

confidence: 86%

Recent Ice-Sheet Growth in the Interior of Greenland

Johannessen

Khvorostovsky

Miles

et al. 2005

Science

153

108

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A continuous data set of Greenland Ice Sheet altimeter height from ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites, 1992 to 2003, has been analyzed. An increase of 6.4 ± 0.2 centimeters per year is found in the vast interior areas above 1500 meters, in contrast to previous reports of high-elevation balance. Below 1500 meters, the elevation-change rate is -2.0 ± 0.9 cm/year, in qualitative agreement with reported thinning in the ice-sheet margins. The spatially averaged increase is 5.4 ± 0.2 cm/year, or ~60 cm over 11 years, or ~54 cm when corrected for isostatic uplift. Winter elevation changes are shown to be linked to the North Atlantic Oscillation.

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“…ii) The MM5 model used by is an atmospheric weather model running at a resolution of 24 km and it is coupled with a simplified snow model which takes however into account the blowing snow erosion (Snow pack properties in MM5 mainly derive from the direct measurements driving the model during simulation); iii) The Hanna et al (2007) estimations use a complex snow model running at a resolution of 5 km forced by monthly mean atmospheric fields from the ECMWF (re)analysis available at a resolution of 110 km; iv) The Mote (2003) estimations use a Positive Degree Day (PDD) model at a resolution of 25 km forced by the SSM/I brightness temperature and by the Bromwich et al (2001) accumulation time series. But, the used ice sheet mask, the resolution and the spin-up time could also be a cause of disagreement between models.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rogers, 1997;Appenzeller et al, 1998;Bromwich et al, 1999) and is gauged here by the NAO index, which is computed as the normalised pressure difference between Gibraltar minus Reykjavik (Jones et al, 1997;Osborn, 2004). It is closely related to the Arctic Oscillation (AO) (Thompson et al, 1998) and is one of the major modes of variability of the Northern Hemisphere atmosphere, particularly in winter.…”

Section: The North Atlantic Oscillationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstruction of the 1979–2006 Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance using the regional climate model MAR

2007

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Abstract.Results from a 28-year simulation over the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) reveal an increase of solid precipitation (+0.4±2.5 km 3 yr −2 ) and runoff (+7.9±3.3 km 3 yr −2 ) of surface meltwater. The net effect of these competing factors is a significant Surface Mass Balance (SMB) loss of −7.2±5.1 km 3 yr −2 . The contribution of changes in the net water vapour flux (+0.02±0.09 km 3 yr −2 ) and rainfall (+0.2±0.2 km 3 yr −2 ) to the SMB variability is negligible. The meltwater supply has increased because the GrIS surface has been warming up +2.4 • C since 1979. Sensible heat flux, latent heat flux and net solar radiation have not varied significantly over the last three decades. However, the simulated downward infrared flux has increased by 9.3 W m −2 since 1979. The natural climate variability (e.g. the North Atlantic Oscillation) does not explain these changes. The recent global warming, due to the greenhouse gas concentration increase induced by human activities, could be a cause of these changes. The doubling of surface meltwater flux into the ocean over the period suggests that the overall ice sheet mass balance has been increasingly negative, given the likely meltwater-induced acceleration of outlet glaciers. This study suggests that increased melting overshadows over an increased accumulation in a warming scenario and that the GrIS is likely to keep losing mass in the future. An enduring GrIS melting will probably affect in the future an certain effect on the stability of the thermohaline circulation and the global sea level rise.

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Precipitation over Greenland and its relation to the North Atlantic Oscillation

Cited by 81 publications

References 30 publications

Regional differences in the timing of the spring bloom in the Labrador Sea

Regional differences in the timing of the spring bloom in the Labrador Sea

Recent Ice-Sheet Growth in the Interior of Greenland

Reconstruction of the 1979–2006 Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance using the regional climate model MAR

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