Seasonal Patterns of Greenland Ice Velocity From Sentinel‐1 SAR Data Linked to Runoff
Anne Solgaard, Dina Rapp, Brice Noël, Christine S. Hvidberg
Abstract
Abstract Accurate projections of the mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) require a complete understanding of the ice‐dynamic response to climate forcings on seasonal and interannual timescales and would greatly benefit from more observational evidence. Here, we analyze a 5‐year, high‐resolution data set of ice velocities of the GrIS using K ‐means, an unsupervised clustering algorithm, to identify ice‐sheet wide characteristic seasonal flow patterns. We include all areas flowing >0.3 m/d and obtain an ice‐sheet wide overview of the seasonality and the interannual variability. It shows both a spatial and interannual variability in seasonal flow patterns, both along individual glaciers and between glaciers. We compare with runoff from a regional climate model and infer that the ice‐sheet wide patterns are linked to the availability of water penetrating to the base of the ice.