ArticleNature communications2021
Increased variability in Greenland Ice Sheet runoff from satellite observations.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Illusory early-warning signals of Greenland Ice Sheet destabilization.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Detection of 85 new active subglacial lakes in Antarctica from a decade of CryoSat-2 data.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Concurrent superimposed ice formation and meltwater runoff on Greenland's ice slabs.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Outburst of a subglacial flood from the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet.Nature geoscience · 2025Article
- Shifted sediment-transport regimes by climate change and amplified hydrological variability in cryosphere-fed rivers.Science advances · 2023Article
- Glacial Water: A Dynamic Microbial Medium.Microorganisms · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Runoff from the Greenland Ice Sheet has increased over recent decades affecting global sea level, regional ocean circulation, and coastal marine ecosystems, and it now accounts for most of the contemporary mass imbalance. Estimates of runoff are typically derived from regional climate models because satellite records have been limited to assessments of melting extent. Here, we use CryoSat-2 satellite altimetry to produce direct measurements of Greenland's runoff variability, based on seasonal changes in the ice sheet's surface elevation. Between 2011 and 2020, Greenland's ablation zone thinned on average by 1.4 ± 0.4 m each summer and thickened by 0.9 ± 0.4 m each winter. By adjusting for the steady-state divergence of ice, we estimate that runoff was 357 ± 58 Gt/yr on average - in close agreement with regional climate model simulations (root mean square difference of 47 to 60 Gt/yr). As well as being 21 % higher between 2011 and 2020 than over the preceding three decades, runoff is now also 60 % more variable from year-to-year as a consequence of large-scale fluctuations in atmospheric circulation. Because this variability is not captured in global climate model simulations, our satellite record of runoff should help to refine them and improve confidence in their projections.
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Registered trials
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