Surface Elevation Change of Glaciers Along the Coast of Prudhoe Land, Northwestern Greenland From 1985 to 2018
Yefan Wang, Shin Sugiyama, Anders Anker Bjørk
Abstract
Abstract Outlet glaciers in Greenland exhibited rapid frontal retreat, thinning, and flow acceleration in the 21st century. In contrast to a number of studies in the last two decades, long‐term glacier changes are not well known, hence limiting the understanding of ongoing glacier retreat. In this study, we present surface elevation changes of 16 glaciers along the coast of Prudhoe Land, northwestern Greenland, using digital elevation models between 1985 and 2018. All the glaciers experienced surface lowering at a mean rate of −0.55 ± 0.24 m a −1 over the period of study. Surface elevation change has shown a clear shift from 0.14 ± 0.17 m a −1 in 1985–2001 to −1.31 ± 0.20 m a −1 in 2001–2018. Thinning after 2001 was more significant at the glaciers terminating in Inglefield Bredning, represented by the most rapid thinning of Tracy and Farquhar Glaciers at −3.91 ± 0.13 and −2.91 ± 0.18 m a −1 , respectively. Glaciers terminating in shallower fjords directly connected to Baffin Bay showed a thinning rate 40% slower than those in the Inglefield Bredning region. Warming trends in atmospheric and ocean temperature since the late 1990s are most likely triggers of the glacier regime shift around 2001. The heterogeneity in the glacier change is attributed to the glacier geometry and fjord bathymetry of each individual glacier, since glaciers terminating in deep fjords are subjected to greater acceleration and are more affected by deep ocean warming.