Articles | Volume 13, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-845-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-845-2019
Research article
 | 
11 Mar 2019
Research article |  | 11 Mar 2019

Firn data compilation reveals widespread decrease of firn air content in western Greenland

Baptiste Vandecrux, Michael MacFerrin, Horst Machguth, William T. Colgan, Dirk van As, Achim Heilig, C. Max Stevens, Charalampos Charalampidis, Robert S. Fausto, Elizabeth M. Morris, Ellen Mosley-Thompson, Lora Koenig, Lynn N. Montgomery, Clément Miège, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Thomas Ingeman-Nielsen, and Jason E. Box

Data sets

Firn air content and firn area deleneation on the Greenland ice sheet B. Vandecrux https://doi.org/10.18739/A2V40JZ6C

Greenland ice sheet firn air content analysis scripts (Version v1.0.1) B. Vandecrux https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2578788

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Short summary
The perennial snow, or firn, on the Greenland ice sheet each summer stores part of the meltwater formed at the surface, buffering the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level. We gathered observations of firn air content, indicative of the space available in the firn to retain meltwater, and find that this air content remained stable in cold regions of the firn over the last 65 years but recently decreased significantly in western Greenland.