Greenland Ice Sheet Wide Supraglacial Lake Evolution and Dynamics: Insights From the 2018 and 2019 Melt Seasons
Abstract Supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) can impact both the ice sheet surface mass balance and ice dynamics. Thus, understanding the evolution and dynamics of supraglacial lakes is important to provide improved parameterizations for ice sheet models to enable better projections...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2025-02-01
|
| Series: | Earth and Space Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EA003793 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849727901226762240 |
|---|---|
| author | Devon Dunmire Aneesh C. Subramanian Emam Hossain Md Osman Gani Alison F. Banwell Hammad Younas Brendan Myers |
| author_facet | Devon Dunmire Aneesh C. Subramanian Emam Hossain Md Osman Gani Alison F. Banwell Hammad Younas Brendan Myers |
| author_sort | Devon Dunmire |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) can impact both the ice sheet surface mass balance and ice dynamics. Thus, understanding the evolution and dynamics of supraglacial lakes is important to provide improved parameterizations for ice sheet models to enable better projections of future GrIS changes. In this study, we utilize the growing inventory of optical and microwave satellite imagery to automatically determine the fate of Greenland‐wide supraglacial lakes during 2018 and 2019; low and high melt seasons respectively. We develop a novel time series classification method to categorize lakes into four classes: (a) Refreezing, (b) rapidly draining, (c) slowly draining, and (d) buried. Our findings reveal significant interannual variability between the two melt seasons, with a notable increase in the proportion of draining lakes, and a particular dominance of slowly draining lakes, in 2019. We also find that as mean lake depth increases, so does the percentage of lakes that drain, indicating that lake depth may influence hydrofracture potential. We further observe rapidly draining lakes at higher elevations than the previously hypothesized upper‐elevation hydrofracture limit (1,600 m), and that non‐draining lakes are generally deeper during the lower melt 2018 season. Our automatic classification approach and the resulting 2‐year ice‐sheet‐wide data set provide new insights into GrIS supraglacial lake dynamics and evolution, offering a valuable resource for future research. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3d9de4d010124903a511c78b240950d1 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2333-5084 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Earth and Space Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-3d9de4d010124903a511c78b240950d12025-08-20T03:09:44ZengAmerican Geophysical Union (AGU)Earth and Space Science2333-50842025-02-01122n/an/a10.1029/2024EA003793Greenland Ice Sheet Wide Supraglacial Lake Evolution and Dynamics: Insights From the 2018 and 2019 Melt SeasonsDevon Dunmire0Aneesh C. Subramanian1Emam Hossain2Md Osman Gani3Alison F. Banwell4Hammad Younas5Brendan Myers6Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences University of Colorado ‐ Boulder Boulder CO USADepartment of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences University of Colorado ‐ Boulder Boulder CO USADepartment of Information Systems University of Maryland Baltimore County Baltimore MD USADepartment of Information Systems University of Maryland Baltimore County Baltimore MD USACooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science (CIRES) University of Colorado Boulder Boulder CO USASt. John's School Houston TX USADepartment of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences University of Colorado ‐ Boulder Boulder CO USAAbstract Supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) can impact both the ice sheet surface mass balance and ice dynamics. Thus, understanding the evolution and dynamics of supraglacial lakes is important to provide improved parameterizations for ice sheet models to enable better projections of future GrIS changes. In this study, we utilize the growing inventory of optical and microwave satellite imagery to automatically determine the fate of Greenland‐wide supraglacial lakes during 2018 and 2019; low and high melt seasons respectively. We develop a novel time series classification method to categorize lakes into four classes: (a) Refreezing, (b) rapidly draining, (c) slowly draining, and (d) buried. Our findings reveal significant interannual variability between the two melt seasons, with a notable increase in the proportion of draining lakes, and a particular dominance of slowly draining lakes, in 2019. We also find that as mean lake depth increases, so does the percentage of lakes that drain, indicating that lake depth may influence hydrofracture potential. We further observe rapidly draining lakes at higher elevations than the previously hypothesized upper‐elevation hydrofracture limit (1,600 m), and that non‐draining lakes are generally deeper during the lower melt 2018 season. Our automatic classification approach and the resulting 2‐year ice‐sheet‐wide data set provide new insights into GrIS supraglacial lake dynamics and evolution, offering a valuable resource for future research.https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EA003793Greenland ice sheethydrologymachine learningremote sensingsupraglacial lakeshydrofracture |
| spellingShingle | Devon Dunmire Aneesh C. Subramanian Emam Hossain Md Osman Gani Alison F. Banwell Hammad Younas Brendan Myers Greenland Ice Sheet Wide Supraglacial Lake Evolution and Dynamics: Insights From the 2018 and 2019 Melt Seasons Earth and Space Science Greenland ice sheet hydrology machine learning remote sensing supraglacial lakes hydrofracture |
| title | Greenland Ice Sheet Wide Supraglacial Lake Evolution and Dynamics: Insights From the 2018 and 2019 Melt Seasons |
| title_full | Greenland Ice Sheet Wide Supraglacial Lake Evolution and Dynamics: Insights From the 2018 and 2019 Melt Seasons |
| title_fullStr | Greenland Ice Sheet Wide Supraglacial Lake Evolution and Dynamics: Insights From the 2018 and 2019 Melt Seasons |
| title_full_unstemmed | Greenland Ice Sheet Wide Supraglacial Lake Evolution and Dynamics: Insights From the 2018 and 2019 Melt Seasons |
| title_short | Greenland Ice Sheet Wide Supraglacial Lake Evolution and Dynamics: Insights From the 2018 and 2019 Melt Seasons |
| title_sort | greenland ice sheet wide supraglacial lake evolution and dynamics insights from the 2018 and 2019 melt seasons |
| topic | Greenland ice sheet hydrology machine learning remote sensing supraglacial lakes hydrofracture |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EA003793 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT devondunmire greenlandicesheetwidesupraglaciallakeevolutionanddynamicsinsightsfromthe2018and2019meltseasons AT aneeshcsubramanian greenlandicesheetwidesupraglaciallakeevolutionanddynamicsinsightsfromthe2018and2019meltseasons AT emamhossain greenlandicesheetwidesupraglaciallakeevolutionanddynamicsinsightsfromthe2018and2019meltseasons AT mdosmangani greenlandicesheetwidesupraglaciallakeevolutionanddynamicsinsightsfromthe2018and2019meltseasons AT alisonfbanwell greenlandicesheetwidesupraglaciallakeevolutionanddynamicsinsightsfromthe2018and2019meltseasons AT hammadyounas greenlandicesheetwidesupraglaciallakeevolutionanddynamicsinsightsfromthe2018and2019meltseasons AT brendanmyers greenlandicesheetwidesupraglaciallakeevolutionanddynamicsinsightsfromthe2018and2019meltseasons |