Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32999-2
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Funding
- Villum Investigator Project IceFlow [16572]
- Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Villum Foundation Experiment grant [2361]
- A. P. Moller Foundation
- University of Copenhagen
- US National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs
- Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
- National Institute of Polar Research
- Arctic Challenge for Sustainability
- University of Bergen
- Trond Mohn Foundation
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- French Polar Institute Paul-Emile Victor, Institute for Geosciences and Environmental research
- University of Manitoba
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Beijing Normal University
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A new study reveals the instability of the North East Greenland ice stream and its potential impact on future evolution. By analyzing remote sensing data and GPS observations, researchers find that the shear margins of the ice stream are accelerating and widening, which is likely due to the softening of the shear margin caused by evolving fabric or temperature, rather than external forcing.
A new study finds that the North East Greenland ice stream is not as stable as previously thought and that this will affect its future evolution. Mass loss near the ice-sheet margin is evident from remote sensing as frontal retreat and increases in ice velocities. Velocities in the ice sheet interior are orders of magnitude smaller, making it challenging to detect velocity change. Here, we analyze a 35-year record of remotely sensed velocities, and a 6-year record of repeated GPS observations, at the East Greenland Ice-core Project (EastGRIP), located in the middle of the Northeast-Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS). We find that the shear margins of NEGIS are accelerating, indicating a widening of the ice stream. We demonstrate that the widening of the ice stream is unlikely to be a response to recent changes at the outlets of NEGIS. Modelling indicates that the observed spatial fingerprint of acceleration is more consistent with a softening of the shear margin, e.g. due to evolving fabric or temperature, than a response to external forcing at the surface or bed.
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