Annual Minimum Snow/Ice Extent Variations over Greenland since 2000: Ice Sheet, Peripheral Areas, and Relation to Ice Mass Balance

Abstract

Abstract A novel satellite image processing technique was utilized to produce an annual time series of the Minimum Snow/Ice (MSI) extent over the entire Greenland landmass for the period 2000-2022. The information was derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer 10-day clear-sky composites over the April-September period. The data products were generated from 250-m swath imagery. The annual aggregates were downscaled to a 150-m grid for consistency with data on margins of Greenland available from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), and the Greenland Ice Mapping Project. Inter-annual variations in the MSI extent were derived and analyzed for each of the seven major glacier basins in Greenland split into the main ice sheet, represented by a static map, and the peripheral areas from which all variations originated. Four of the seven regions demonstrated statistically significant negative trends in the MSI extent. The entire Greenland area also showed a declining snow/ice extent although this was not statistically significant. The region-wide and peripheral snow/ice extent varied from a minimum of 1.807 × 106 km2 (1.449 × 105 km2 for peripheral areas) observed in 2012 to a maximum of 1.860 × 106 km2 (1.977 × 105 km2) observed in 2006 with an average value of 1.829 × 106 km2 (1.664 × 105 km2). The derived MSI variations showed statistically significant correlation with the near-surface 2- m air temperature from the ERA5 Land reanalysis and Greenland ice mass balance from GEUS for all catchments, with correlation coefficients for the entire area equal to −0.74 and 0.53, respectively. The mapping of many peripheral glaciers and ice shelves included in the glaciology databases and utilized for the IPCC reporting is not always consistent with our results and requires improvement, especially in the coastal areas.