Université de Fribourg

A tipping point in refreezing accelerates mass loss of Greenland’s glaciers and ice caps

Noël, B. ; Berg, W. J van de ; Lhermitte, S. ; Wouters, B. ; Machguth, Horst ; Howat, I. ; Citterio, M. ; Moholdt, G. ; Lenaerts, J. T. M. ; Broeke, M. R. van den

In: Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, p. 14730

Melting of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) and its peripheral glaciers and ice caps (GICs) contributes about 43% to contemporary sea level rise. While patterns of GrIS mass loss are well studied, the spatial and temporal evolution of GICs mass loss and the acting processes have remained unclear. Here we use a novel, 1 km surface mass balance product, evaluated against in situ and remote...

Université de Fribourg

Reanalysing glacier mass balance measurement series

Zemp, M. ; Thibert, E. ; Huss, Matthias ; Stumm, D. ; Denby, C. Rolstad ; Nuth, C. ; Nussbaumer, S. U. ; Moholdt, G. ; Mercer, A. ; Mayer, C. ; Joerg, P. C. ; Jansson, P. ; Hynek, B. ; Fischer, A. ; Escher-Vetter, H. ; Elvehøy, H. ; Andreassen, L. M.

In: The Cryosphere, 2013, vol. 7, no. 4, p. 1227-1245

Glacier-wide mass balance has been measured for more than sixty years and is widely used as an indicator of climate change and to assess the glacier contribution to runoff and sea level rise. Until recently, comprehensive uncertainty assessments have rarely been carried out and mass balance data have often been applied using rough error estimation or without consideration of errors. In this...