Increasing water vapor transport to the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed using self‐organizing maps

Abstract The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has been losing mass in recent decades, with an acceleration in mass loss since 2000. In this study, we apply a self‐organizing map classification to integrated vapor transport data from the ERA‐Interim reanalysis to determine if these GrIS mass loss trends ar...

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Main Authors: Kyle S. Mattingly, Craig A. Ramseyer, Joshua J. Rosen, Thomas L. Mote, Rohi Muthyala
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2016-09-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL070424
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author Kyle S. Mattingly
Craig A. Ramseyer
Joshua J. Rosen
Thomas L. Mote
Rohi Muthyala
author_facet Kyle S. Mattingly
Craig A. Ramseyer
Joshua J. Rosen
Thomas L. Mote
Rohi Muthyala
author_sort Kyle S. Mattingly
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has been losing mass in recent decades, with an acceleration in mass loss since 2000. In this study, we apply a self‐organizing map classification to integrated vapor transport data from the ERA‐Interim reanalysis to determine if these GrIS mass loss trends are linked to increases in moisture transport to Greenland. We find that “moist” days (i.e., days featuring anomalously intense water vapor transport to Greenland) were significantly more common during 2000–2015 compared to 1979–1994. Furthermore, the two most intense GrIS melt seasons during the last 36 years were either preceded by a record percentage of moist winter days (2010) or occurred during a summer with a record frequency of moist days (2012). We hypothesize that moisture transport events alter the GrIS energy budget by increasing downwelling longwave radiation and turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent energy.
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series Geophysical Research Letters
spelling doaj-art-0f0dfc168e654795a4492c75152ee7672025-08-20T01:52:04ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072016-09-0143179250925810.1002/2016GL070424Increasing water vapor transport to the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed using self‐organizing mapsKyle S. Mattingly0Craig A. Ramseyer1Joshua J. Rosen2Thomas L. Mote3Rohi Muthyala4Climatology Research Laboratory, Department of Geography University of Georgia Athens Georgia USADepartment of Geography and Geosciences Salisbury University Salisbury Maryland USAClimatology Research Laboratory, Department of Geography University of Georgia Athens Georgia USAClimatology Research Laboratory, Department of Geography University of Georgia Athens Georgia USADepartment of Geography, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey Piscataway New Jersey USAAbstract The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has been losing mass in recent decades, with an acceleration in mass loss since 2000. In this study, we apply a self‐organizing map classification to integrated vapor transport data from the ERA‐Interim reanalysis to determine if these GrIS mass loss trends are linked to increases in moisture transport to Greenland. We find that “moist” days (i.e., days featuring anomalously intense water vapor transport to Greenland) were significantly more common during 2000–2015 compared to 1979–1994. Furthermore, the two most intense GrIS melt seasons during the last 36 years were either preceded by a record percentage of moist winter days (2010) or occurred during a summer with a record frequency of moist days (2012). We hypothesize that moisture transport events alter the GrIS energy budget by increasing downwelling longwave radiation and turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent energy.https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL070424Greenland ice sheetatmospheric energy transportatmospheric riversself‐organizing mapspoleward moisture transport
spellingShingle Kyle S. Mattingly
Craig A. Ramseyer
Joshua J. Rosen
Thomas L. Mote
Rohi Muthyala
Increasing water vapor transport to the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed using self‐organizing maps
Geophysical Research Letters
Greenland ice sheet
atmospheric energy transport
atmospheric rivers
self‐organizing maps
poleward moisture transport
title Increasing water vapor transport to the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed using self‐organizing maps
title_full Increasing water vapor transport to the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed using self‐organizing maps
title_fullStr Increasing water vapor transport to the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed using self‐organizing maps
title_full_unstemmed Increasing water vapor transport to the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed using self‐organizing maps
title_short Increasing water vapor transport to the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed using self‐organizing maps
title_sort increasing water vapor transport to the greenland ice sheet revealed using self organizing maps
topic Greenland ice sheet
atmospheric energy transport
atmospheric rivers
self‐organizing maps
poleward moisture transport
url https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL070424
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