© DMI Polar Portal.
Greenland Ice Sheet SMB through 2017-18 (top) and 2018-19 (bottom) shown as blue lines. Grey lines show the 1981-2010 average and red shows the record low of 2011-12.
Greenland Ice Sheet SMB through 2017-18 (top) and 2018-19 (bottom) shown as blue lines. Grey lines show the 1981-2010 average and red shows the record low of 2011-12.
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Using daily output from a weather forecasting model combined with a model that calculates melt of snow and ice, scientists from the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) calculated the "surface mass budget" (SMB) of the Greenland ice sheet.
When you look at the blue lines on the above graphs, it is quite evident that the Greenland Ice Sheet surface mass budget is far, far higher than the mean.
For this year, the DMI scientists calculated a total SMB of 517bn tonnes, which is almost 150bn tonnes above the average for 1981-2010, ranking just behind the 2016-17 season as sixth highest on record.
The scientists involved, Dr Ruth Mottram, Dr Peter Langen and Dr Martin Stendel, are climate scientists at the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) in Copenhagen, which is part of the Polar Portal. They reported their startling findings in a little heralded article on 17 Oct 2018.
See entire article here.
Comment: Another indication of above average cover for both ice and snow in 2018 for part of this region can be gleaned from this report: Global cooling: Excessive spring snowfall results in non-breeding year for shorebirds in north-east Greenland - 1 meter deep snow