Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Greenland 2.0

Fig. 1 The Greenland
I. Background

This post is like Antarctica 2.0 (Antarctica 2.0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & supplements A, B, C, D, E, F) except that in this case we analyze the Cryosphere of Greenland (both the mythological Greenland and the real Greenland).

One of the myths about Greenland (like Antarctica) is that it only recently began to melt.

The reality is that it began to melt, primarily from atmospheric causes, a few decades after the Industrial Revolution began circa 1750 (Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 54, The Gravity of Sea Level Change, 2, 3, 4).

The World Ocean Database (WOD) data for Greenland is sparse, so, I have updated my Greenland dataset with data from the NASA project "Oceans Melting Greenland" (OMG) because it at least has robust in situ ocean temperature and practical salinity measurements for the years 2016 and 2017 (OMG began recently).

II. Future Work

My intent for future posts, as the volume of in situ ocean water measurements increase, is to have some form of area focus for Greenland as I have for Antarctica.

Work remains to be done on links to Greenland glaciers listed on Wikipedia and on the software module that generates the graphs shown in today's post.

Past area-focus posts pertaining to Greenland have had to do with primarily atmospheric impact areas (The Question Is: How Much Acceleration Is Involved In SLR? - 10).

The oceans, for now, IMO are the main source of melting, and therefore the main focus of this series.

III. The Greenland Picture Now

Both WOD Zone data and OMG data (ocean water measurements) are not yet robust or
Fig. 1a WOD Zones of Greenland
even completely adequate for all Greenland areas and zones.

The map in the paper linked to and shown in Fig. 1 is composed of aerial data and other data.

That is, the data set is not based on in situ measurements of underwater conditions.

So, I am presenting graphs and links that I have now, sorted by Zone, based on in situ measurements processed into TEOS-10 values by the TEOS-10 toolkit.

Where there is a link to glaciers in a zone, I present that link.

The same goes for zones where there is WOD data available to generate a graph of values from that zone.

In Section IV below, I present a graph of all data from all individual zones (those WOD Zones are shown in Fig. 1a as superimposed on the Fig. 1 map).

I generate the best graph I can with current data:
WOD Zone [7802]
Hagen Bræ

WOD Zone [7803]
Academy

WOD Zone [7804]
Wordie

WOD Zone [7805]
Ryder
Steensby

WOD Zone [7806]
Petermann
Zone 7806

WOD Zone [7701]
Zachariae Isstrom

Zone 7701

WOD Zone [7702]
Akuliarutsip Sermerssua
Charcot
Daugård Jensen
Ejnar Mikkelsena
Ejnar Mikkelsenb
Gerard De Geer
Jætte
Kofoed Hansen Bræ
L.Bistrup Bræ
Rolige Bræ
Storstrømmen
Vestfjord
Waltershausen
Zone 7702

WOD Zone [7705]
Cornell
Hayes
Illullip Sermia
Inngia Isbræ
Kangilleq
Kjer
King Oscar
Nordenskiöld
Nunatakavsaup Sermia
Perlerfiup Sermia
Qeqertarsuup Sermia
Rink

Zone 7705

WOD Zone [7706]
Bowdoin
Harald Moltke Bræ
Humboldt
Knud Rasmussen
Peary

Zone 7706

WOD Zone [7602]
Christian IV
Kronborg
Zone 7602

WOD Zone [7603]
Christian IV
Helheim
Kangerdlugssuaq
KJV Steenstrups
Midgårds

Zone 7603

WOD Zone [7604]
Bernstorf
Avaqqat Kangerlua
Danell
Guldfaxe and Rimfaxe
Gyldenlove
Heimdal
Igutsaat
Ikertivaq
Kangerluluk

Zone 7604

WOD Zone [7605]
Jakobshavn Isbræ

Zone 7605

Fig. 2 All WOD Zones @ Greenland
IV. Conclusion

Where there is no specific link to a specific glacier name, I link to a neighbor glacier, to a fjord where the glacier is located, or to a scientific paper that mentions that glacier.

Note that the general purpose of this post is to reveal the subsurface ocean water dynamics that are working to melt the tidewater glaciers in Greenland.

The graph at Fig. 2 is the combined trend (mean average) of all of the WOD Zone  listed.

The "melt" lines on each graph show the temperature of the ice that just turned into water and mixed with the water that melted it.

The next post in this series is here.