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

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Cited articles

Albert, M. and Shultz, E.: Snow and firn properties and air–snow transport processes at Summit, Greenland, Atmos. Environ., 36, 2789–2797, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1352-2310(02)00119-X, 2002. 
Alley, R.: Transformations in Polar Firn, PhD Thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA, 1987. 
Bader, H.: Sorge's law of densification of snow on high polar glaciers, J. Glaciol., 2, 15, 319–411, https://doi.org/10.3189/S0022143000025144, 1954. 
Baker, I.: Density and permeability measurements with depth for the NEEM 2009S2 firn core, ACADIS Gateway, https://doi.org/10.18739/A2Q88G, 2012. 
Benson, C. S.: Stratigraphic Studies in the Snow and Firn of the Greenland Ice Sheet, U.S. Army Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment (SIPRE–CRREL), Research Report 70, reprinted with revisions by CRREL, 1996, 1962. 
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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.