Collaborative Research: Behavior of Supraglacial Lakes and Their Role in Outlet Glacier Dynamics and Mass Balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet

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ABSTRACTDasOPP-0520077JoughinOPP-0520382 This is a collaborative proposal by Principal Investigators from the University of Washington and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This proposal has also been submitted to NASA and will be jointly funded by OPP and NASA. The Principal Investigators will use geophysical field measurements and remote sensing to investigate the role of Greenland's supraglacial lakes in delivering melt water to the ice sheet's bed and in modulating ice flow on short time scales. Recent results demonstrate a correlation between ice velocity and surface melt draining through moulins to the bed, which may provide a mechanism for rapid response of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) to climate change. Supraglacial lakes are one of the critical links between surface melting and enhanced basal flow, have the potential to rapidly respond to future climate change, and are the focus of the research project described here.Intellectual Merit: The major result of this project will be significant new knowledge about the formation and dynamics of Greenland's supraglacial lakes and the role of surface melt and lake drainage in modulating ice sheet flow. Over the entire GIS, the project's results will provide the first clear understanding of where and why lakes form around Greenland, the total melt-water volume stored in these lakes, and their relationship to outlet glacier drainage basins. Over the dynamic and climatically sensitive Jakobshavn region, the results will show the interannual variability in lake systems and the available melt water flux from supraglacial lakes to the ice sheet's bed. These observations will be used to test emerging hypotheses concerning the role of supraglacial lakes in moulin formation. New observations of how local and regional climate control lake behavior will yield insight into the potential for lake systems to respond to future climate change. Ground-based measurements and experiments will: 1) allow account for the role of lake drainage in ice flow variability, 2) relate local climate controls to changing lake volume and moulin formation, and 3) provide better constraint on how models predict future ice sheet response to climate change. Broader Impacts: Arctic change and Greenland's contribution to sea level rise is of great societal interest and concern. The results of this research will be disseminated to the public through ongoing Principal Investigator efforts including K-12 classroom visits, web sites, press interviews, and other opportunities. Results will be of immediate interest to scientists working to understand past and future changes to the GIS. They will present results in specialized journals and conferences, and will speak in departmental seminars that reach a broad cross-section of the earth science community. This research will contribute to the establishment of a new glaciological program at WHOI and to new collaborations at UW.