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标题：Englacial latent-heat transfer has limited influence on seaward ice flux in western Greenland
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作者：KRISTIN POINAR ; IAN JOUGHIN ; JAN T. M. LENAERTS 等
期刊名称：Journal of Glaciology
印刷版ISSN：0022-1430
电子版ISSN：1727-5652
出版年度：2017
卷号：63
期号：237
页码：1-16
DOI：10.1017/jog.2016.103
出版社：Cambridge University Press
摘要：ABSTRACT Surface meltwater can refreeze within firn layers and crevasses to warm ice through latent-heat transfer on decadal to millennial timescales. Earlier work posited that the consequent softening of the ice might accelerate ice flow, potentially increasing ice-sheet mass loss. Here, we calculate the effect of meltwater refreezing on ice temperature and softness in the Pâkitsoq (near Swiss Camp) and Jakobshavn Isbræ regions of western Greenland using a numeric model and existing borehole measurements. We show that in the Jakobshavn catchment, meltwater percolation within the firn warms the ice at depth by 3–5°C. By contrast, meltwater refreezing in crevasses (cryo-hydrologic warming) at depths of ~300 m warms the ice in Pâkitsoq by up to 10°C, but this causes minimal increase in ice motion (<10 m a −1 ). Pâkitsoq is representative of western Greenland's land-terminating ice, where the slow movement of ice through a wide ablation zone provides ideal conditions for cryo-hydrologic warming to occur. We find that only ~37% of the western Greenland ice flux, however, travels through such areas. Overall, our findings suggest that cryo-hydrologic warming will likely have only a limited effect on the dynamic evolution of the Greenland ice sheet.
关键词：cryo; hydrologic warming; Greenland ice sheet; ice dynamics; ice; sheet modelling; polar firn