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Many glaciers along the southeast and northwest coasts of Greenland have accelerated, increasing the ice sheet’s contribution to global sea-level rise. Here, we map elevation changes on Upernavik Isstrøm (UI), West Greenland, during 2003-2009 using high-resolution Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimeter data supplemented with altimeter surveys from NASA’s Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) during 2002-2010. To assess thinning prior to 2002, we analyze aerial photographs from 1985. We document at least two distinct periods of dynamically-induced ice loss during 1985-2010 characterized by a rapid retreat of the calving front, increased ice speed and lowering of the ice surface. The first period occurred prior to 1991, while the latter occurred during 2005-2009. Analyses of air and sea surface temperature suggest a combination of relatively warm air and ocean water as a potential trigger for the dynamically-induced ice loss. We estimate a total catchment-wide ice mass loss of UI caused by the two events of 72.3 +/- 15.8 Giga-ton during 1985-2010, while the total melt induced ice mass loss during this same period is 19.8 +/ 2.8 Gt. Thus, 79 % of the total ice mass loss of the UI catchment was caused by ice dynamics, indicating the importance of including dynamically-induced ice loss in the total mass change budget of the Greenland ice sheet.

(Geophysical Research Abstracts (ISSN: 1607-7962), vol: 14, pages: EGU2012-1852, 2012) Many glaciers along the southeast and northwest coast of Greenland have accelerated, increasing the Greenland ice sheet's (GrIS) contribution to global sea-level rise. Here, we map elevation changes in northwest Greenland during 2003-2009 using high-resolution Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimeter data (Zwally, 2010) supplemented with altimeter surveys from NASA's Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) during 2002-2011 (Krabill, 2011). We use the measurements of elevation change to estimate catchment-wide ice volume loss (convert is to mass loss) and compare with independent measurements from GPS and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite gravity mission, launched in March, 2002. The GRACE results provide a direct measure of mass loss averaged over the entire northwest sector, while the GPS data are used to monitor crustal uplift caused by ice mass loss close to the sites. GPS data from a long term site at Thule Airbase show accelerated uplift starting in 2005 and a minor deceleration in 2009-2010. The deceleration is more dominant at GPS stations deployed in 2007 in northwest Greenland as part of the Greenland GPS Network (GNET). Independently, all three methods suggest increased ice loss in northwest Greenland starting in 2005 and a slowdown in 2009-2010.

We estimate the mass loss rate of Upernavik Isstroem using surface elevation changes between a SPOT 5 Digital Elevation Model (DEM) from 2008 and NASA’s Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) data from 2010. To assess the validity of our mass loss estimate, we analyze GPS data between 2007 and 2011 from two continuous receivers, UPVK and SRMP which are established on bedrock and located ~65 and ~2 km from the front of UI, respectively. We construct along-track elevation changes on UI for several time intervals during 2005 – 2011, based on ATM, SPOT 5 and Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) data to assess temporal changes of UI. We estimate a mass loss rate of -6.7 +/- 4.2 Gt/yr, over an area of ~1600 km^2. The ice mass loss occurs primarily over the northern glacier of UI. This pattern is also observed ~40 km upstream, where we observe glacier thinning at a rate of -1.6 +/- 0.3 m/yr across the northern portion of UI and -0.5 +/-0.1 m/yr across the southern portion. We obtain a difference of 0.6 mm/yr between the modeled and observed relative uplift rates at SRMP relative to UPVK, suggesting that the mass loss of UI is well captured in the model. We observe elevation changes from -15 to -40 m/yr near the front during the period 2005 – 2011, indicating that UI undergoes large variations in thinning pattern over short time spans.

Many glaciers along the southeast and northwest coast of Greenland have accelerated, increasing the ice sheet's contribution to global sea-level rise. Here, we map elevation changes on Upernavik Isstrøm (UI), West Greenland, during 2003-2009 using high-resolution Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimeter data supplemented with altimeter surveys from NASA's Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) during 2002-2010. To assess thinning prior to 2002, we analyze aerial photographs from 1985. We document at least two distinct ice loss events characterized by rapid dynamic thinning, increased ice speed, and a retreat of the calving front. The most recent event coincides with the speedup of several glaciers along the northwest coast of Greenland in 2005, and with changes in the rate of mass loss observed using data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite gravity mission. The first event of increased ice loss could have also taken place along the extended northwest coast. The total dynamic induced ice volume loss on the frontal portion of UI caused by the two events is 45.5 +/- 5.4 km3 (during 1985-2010), while the total melt induced ice volume loss during this same period is 7.4 +/- 1.3 km3.

The main outlet glaciers in Greenland have more than doubled their contribution to global sea level rise over the last decade. Several studies have shown increase in ice discharge from the main outlet glaciers (notably Kangerdlugssuaq (KG) and Helheim glaciers (HG) in Southeast Greenland, and Jakobshavn Isbræ (JI) in West Greenland) as a result of significant accelerations in flow speed. The situation across Greenland continues to evolve. Evidence from GRACE (Velicogna, 2009), GPS (Khan, 2010) and ICESat (Pritchard, 2009) suggest that there is an ongoing northward migration of increasing ice loss. Here, we focus on Upernavik Icestream, Northwest Greenland, and show that dynamic thinning on short timescales has been dominating the region at least twice between 1985 and 2010. We map changes on Upernavik Icesteram during 2003-2009 using high-resolution ICESat (Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite) laser altimetry data supplemented with altimeter surveys from NASA’s Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM). To assess thinning prior to 2003, we analyze 1985 aerial photos and derived a 2x2 m grid digital elevation model (DEM).

Many glaciers along the southeast and northwest coast of Greenland have accelerated, increasing the ice sheet's contribution to global sea-level rise. Here, we map elevation changes on Upernavik Isstrøm (UI), West Greenland, during 2003-2009 using high-resolution Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimeter data supplemented with altimeter surveys from NASA's Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) during 2002-2010. To assess thinning prior to 2002, we analyze aerial photographs from 1985. We document at least two distinct ice loss events characterized by rapid dynamic thinning, increased ice speed, and a retreat of the calving front. The most recent event coincides with the speedup of several glaciers along the northwest coast of Greenland in 2005, and with changes in the rate of mass loss observed using data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite gravity mission. The first event of increased ice loss could have also taken place along the extended northwest coast. The total dynamic induced ice volume loss on the frontal portion of UI caused by the two events is 45.5 +/- 5.4 km3 (during 1985-2010), while the total melt induced ice volume loss during this same period is 7.4 +/- 1.3 km3.

Ice mass changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet have been estimated since the early 1990s from the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite gravity mission, of ice sheet thinning from satellite radar altimetry and airborne laser altimetry, and of increased velocities of outlet glaciers from radar interferometric surveys. Prior to 2000 existing altimetry data provides comparatively limited spatial resolution and ice losses near ice sheet margins are most likely underestimated and existing data is unable to document the persisting change within outlet glaciers. Subsequent estimates for the entire ice sheet show increased mass loss from 137 Gt/yr in 2002–2003 to 286 Gt/yr in 2007–2009. Also evidence from the GRACE, GPS (Global Positioning System), and ICESat (Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite) as well as surface mass balance data suggests there is an ongoing northward migration of increasing dynamic induced ice loss. GRACE data show that this increased mass loss initiated in 2005 ceased in late 2009, thus, defining a dynamic thinning event as seen previous along the coast in southeast Greenland. Here, we present a multi-decadal perspective on ice mass change from northwestern Greenland using the stereoscopic coverage by aerial photographs recorded in 1985, which captures the beginning of the present warming in the late 1980s. The derived Digital Elevation Model (DEM) based on the aerial photographs are superior in coverage and spatial resolution to other early surface change records with a 25 m grid resolution and vertical uncertainty of 4.6m. Comparative DEMs were derived from laser altimetry data recorded in 2005 and 2010. Ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) can be partitioned into surface mass balance (SMB) processes (runoff and precipitation) and ice dynamics. For the marginal part of northwestern Greenland, we calculate a mass loss between 1985-2005 to 239 km3 and between 2005-2010 to 193 km3. The SMB contribute with respective