TC The Cryosphere TC 1994-0424 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/tc-6-625-2012 Multi-decadal marine- and land-terminating glacier recession in the Ammassalik region, southeast Greenland Mernild S. H. 1 Malmros J. K. 2 Yde J. C. 3 Knudsen N. T. 4 Climate, Ocean, and Sea Ice Modeling Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, USA Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Sogn og Fjordane University College, Sogndal, Norway Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark 06 06 2012 6 3 625 639 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.the-cryosphere.net/6/625/2012/tc-6-625-2012.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.the-cryosphere.net/6/625/2012/tc-6-625-2012.pdf

Landsat imagery was applied to elucidate glacier fluctuations of land- and marine-terminating outlet glaciers from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) and local land-terminating glaciers and ice caps (GIC) peripheral to the GrIS in the Ammassalik region, Southeast Greenland, during the period 1972–2011. Data from 21 marine-terminating glaciers (including the glaciers Helheim, Midgaard, and Fenris), the GrIS land-terminating margin, and 35 GIC were examined and compared to observed atmospheric air temperatures, precipitation, and reconstructed ocean water temperatures (at 400 m depth in the Irminger Sea). Here, we document that net glacier recession has occurred since 1972 in the Ammassalik region for all glacier types and sizes, except for three GIC. The land-terminating GrIS and GIC reflect lower marginal and areal changes than the marine-terminating outlet glaciers. The mean annual land-terminating GrIS and GIC margin recessions were about three to five times lower than the GrIS marine-terminating recession. The marine-terminating outlet glaciers had an average net frontal retreat for 1999–2011 of 0.098 km yr<sup>−1</sup>, which was significantly higher than in previous sub-periods 1972–1986 and 1986–1999. For the marine-terminating GrIS, the annual areal recession rate has been decreasing since 1972, while increasing for the land-terminating GrIS since 1986. On average for all the observed GIC, a mean net frontal retreat for 1986–2011 of 0.010 ± 0.006 km yr<sup>−1</sup> and a mean areal recession of around 1% per year occurred; overall for all observed GIC, a mean recession rate of 27 ± 24% occurred based on the 1986 GIC area. Since 1986, five GIC melted away in the Ammassalik area.

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