2010 Articles

Greenland [in Arctic Report Card 2010]

Box, J. E.; Cappelen, J.; Decker, D.; Fettweis, X.; Mote, T.; Tedesco, Marco; van de Wal, R. S. W.

Greenland climate in 2010 is marked by record-setting high air temperatures, ice loss by melting, and marine-terminating glacier area loss. Summer seasonal average (June-August) air temperatures around Greenland were 0.6 to 2.4°C above the 1971-2000 baseline and were highest in the west. A combination of a warm and dry 2009-2010 winter and the very warm summer resulted in the highest melt rate since at least 1958 and an area and duration of ice sheet melting that was above any previous year on record since at least 1978. The largest recorded glacier area loss observed in Greenland occurred this summer at Petermann Glacier, where 290 km² of ice broke away. The rate of area loss in marine-terminating glaciers this year (419 km² ) was 3.4 times that of the previous 8 years, when regular observations are available. There is now clear evidence that the ice area loss rate of the past decade (averaging 120 km² /year) is greater than loss rates pre-2000.