Surface melt area variability of the Greenland ice sheet: 1979–2008

The surface melt-area time-series (1979-2008) of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) shows large spatio-temporal variability. The overall melt-area time-series is characterized by a step-like increase in 1995. The melt-area trend for the entire ice-sheet between 1979-1994 is 7.64 x 10 3 +/- 4.79 x 10(3)km(2)/year, which is 8-times higher than the period between 1995-2008 (9.64 x 10(2) +/- 1.10 x 10(4) km(2)/year). This step-like increase of melt area in 1995 coincides well with mean summer air temperature patterns at 8 coastal sites. We find that the melt area and temperature change in 1995, both coincide to a general sign-reversal in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index in 1995. We also find that the northerly sectors of the ice sheet do not clearly coincide with changes in the NAO suggesting the influence of NAO is being felt predominantly on the central-eastern and central-western sectors of the ice sheet. Citation: Bhattacharya, I., K. C. Jezek, L. Wang, and H. Liu (2009), Surface melt area variability of the Greenland ice sheet: 1979-2008, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L20502, doi: 10.1029/2009GL039798.