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Oceanic Transport of Surface Meltwater from the Southern Greenland Ice SheetThe Greenland ice sheet has undergone accelerating mass losses during recent decades. Freshwater runoff from ice melt can influence fjord circulation and dynamic1 and the delivery of bioavailable micronutrients to the ocean. It can also have climate implications, because stratification in the adjacent Labrador Sea may influence deep convection and the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. Yet, the fate of the meltwater in the ocean remains unclear. Here, we use a high-resolution ocean model to show that only 1-15% of the surface meltwater runoff originating from southwest Greenland is transported westwards. In contrast, up to 50-60% of the meltwater runoff originating from southeast Greenland is transported westwards into the northern Labrador Sea, leading to significant salinity and stratification anomalies far from the coast. Doubling meltwater runoff, as predicted in future climate scenarios, results in a more-than-double increase in anomalies offshore that persists further into the winter. Interannual variability in offshore export of meltwater is tightly related to variability in wind forcing. The new insight that meltwaters originating from the west and east coasts have different fates indicates that future changes in mass loss rates and surface runoff will probably impact the ocean differently, depending on their Greenland origins.
Document ID
20160009337
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Luo, Hao
(Georgia Univ. Athens, GA, United States)
Castelao, Renato M.
(Georgia Univ. Athens, GA, United States)
Rennermalm, Asa K.
(Rutgers Univ. Piscataway, NJ, United States)
Tedesco, Marco
Bracco, Annalisa
(Georgia Inst. of Tech. Atlanta, GA, United States)
Yager, Patricia L.
(Georgia Univ. Athens, GA, United States)
Mote, Thomas L.
(Georgia Univ. Athens, GA, United States)
Date Acquired
July 25, 2016
Publication Date
April 25, 2016
Publication Information
Publication: Nature Geoscience
Publisher: MacMillian
Volume: 9
Subject Category
Oceanography
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN33896
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Physical oceanography
Hydrology
Cryospheric science

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