Greenland Ice Sheet late-season melt: investigating multiscale drivers of K-transect events

Ballinger, Thomas J.; Mote, Thomas L.; Mattingly, Kyle; Bliss, Angela C.; Hanna, Edward; van As, Dirk; Prieto, Melissa; Gharehchahi, Saeideh; Fettweis, Xavier; Noël, Brice; Smeets, Paul C. J. P.; Reijmer, Carleen H.; Ribergaard, Mads H.; Cappelen, John

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2241-2019

Articles | Volume 13, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2241-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2241-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 8

Research article

|

30 Aug 2019

Research article |

| 30 Aug 2019

Greenland Ice Sheet late-season melt: investigating multiscale drivers of K-transect events

Thomas J. Ballinger, Thomas L. Mote, Kyle Mattingly, Angela C. Bliss, Edward Hanna, Dirk van As, Melissa Prieto, Saeideh Gharehchahi, Xavier Fettweis, Brice Noël, Paul C. J. P. Smeets, Carleen H. Reijmer, Mads H. Ribergaard, and John Cappelen

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Final revised paper (published on 30 Aug 2019)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 02 Jan 2019)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Review of: Greenland Ice Sheet late-season melt: Investigating multi-scale drivers of K-transect events', Anonymous Referee #1, 06 Feb 2019
- AC1: 'Responses to Referee Comments', Thomas Ballinger, 11 Apr 2019
RC2: 'Review of: Greenland Ice Sheet late-season melt: Investigating multi-scale drivers of K-transect events', Charalampos Charalampidis, 11 Feb 2019
- AC1: 'Responses to Referee Comments', Thomas Ballinger, 11 Apr 2019
RC3: 'Excellent hypothesis, good approach, unsure if conclusions are as strong as stated given the short number of years studied.', Anonymous Referee #3, 17 Feb 2019
- AC1: 'Responses to Referee Comments', Thomas Ballinger, 11 Apr 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Thomas Ballinger on behalf of the Authors (11 Apr 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (04 May 2019) by Valentina Radic

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (22 May 2019)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Review of the revised manuscript of Ballinger et al., The Cryosphere Discussions, April 2019

In view of the online discussion, the manuscript maintains an unorthodox structure. There are good reasons why there are strict boundaries among different sections in scientific writing, and I am sure the experienced authoring team agrees. The Results section is still largely based on supplementary material, which is at the very least inconsiderate toward the reader. These aspects remain serious disadvantages of a study that begins sprinting and purposely trips itself.

As far as the science is concerned, the manuscript appears improved. Apparent mistakes and wrong statements previously evident in the manuscript have been corrected. The study now adopts moderate language appropriate for statistical analyses.

Specific comments:

L115-117: There is logical inconsistency in this justification: KAN_B plays a central role in the study, so perhaps describe what is so special about KAN_B, why it is considered as reference, and then explain how its operational timespan limits the study period. Also, is KAN_B actually uninfluenced by flow patterns through the local topography?..

L124: How can there be “erroneously low” daily temperature and wind averages? Are there also erroneously high daily averages?

L160: Specify that it is above-freezing daily Tair. At the end of the sentence, cite a suitable, positive degree-day modeling study and/or Hock (2005).

L165-166: Is sea-ice positively correlated with Tair?

L168-170: Unclear to me.

L199: End of the Northwest Atlantic melt season area: What is this in reference to? Very unclear.

L199: Upward?..

L208: on average 6 days later

L217-220: This sentence is redundant, at least at this point.

L220: I am still missing why KAN_B is so special.

L225-227: I would begin with KAN_B, which receives stronger, more southerly winds during T+ events that tend to become weaker and more southerly in autumn. There is general wind-speed increase during T+ events, while direction remains more or less unaltered. Statistically significant directional change is always more southerly, which seems to be more evident above long-term ELA.

L232: Open water persistence is unclear to me.

L233: Define MSLP in the text.

L245: RMSE = … [units]

L248: Why except? I don’t see it.

L263-264: It already becomes apparent from Fig. 5 that the furthest in autumn, the higher IVT is necessary for T+ events to occur. Good thing to mention here before analyzing the last figure.

L270: Change enhance with cause?..

L290: Fig. S7?..

L295: The word forcing is redundant.

L298: Change manuscript with study.

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RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (23 May 2019)

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (04 Jun 2019) by Valentina Radic

AR by Thomas Ballinger on behalf of the Authors (16 Jul 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (23 Jul 2019) by Valentina Radic

AR by Thomas Ballinger on behalf of the Authors (25 Jul 2019) Manuscript

Short summary

Arctic sea ice and the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) are melting later in the year due to a warming climate. Through analyses of weather station, climate model, and reanalysis data, physical links are evaluated between Baffin Bay open water duration and western GrIS melt conditions. We show that sub-Arctic air mass movement across this portion of the GrIS strongly influences late summer and autumn melt, while near-surface, off-ice winds inhibit westerly atmospheric heat transfer from Baffin Bay.