North Atlantic Cooling is Slowing Down Mass Loss of Icelandic Glaciers

Brice Noël; Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir; Finnur Pálsson; Bert Wouters; Stef Lhermitte; Jan M. Haacker; Michiel R. van den Broeke

doi:10.1029/2021gl095697

North Atlantic Cooling is Slowing Down Mass Loss of Icelandic Glaciers

Brice Noël, Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir, Finnur Pálsson, Bert Wouters, Stef Lhermitte, Jan M. Haacker, Michiel R. van den Broeke

Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Icelandic glaciers have been losing mass since the Little Ice Age in the mid-to-late 1800s, with higher mass loss rates in the early 21st century, followed by a slowdown since 2011. As of yet, it remains unclear whether this mass loss slowdown will persist in the future. By reconstructing the contemporary (1958–2019) surface mass balance of Icelandic glaciers, we show that the post-2011 mass loss slowdown coincides with the development of the Blue Blob, an area of regional cooling in the North Atlantic Ocean to the south of Greenland. This regional cooling signal mitigates atmospheric warming in Iceland since 2011, in turn decreasing glacier mass loss through reduced meltwater runoff. In a future high-end warming scenario, North Atlantic cooling is projected to mitigate mass loss of Icelandic glaciers until the mid-2050s. High mass loss rates resume thereafter as the regional cooling signal weakens.

Original language	English
Article number	e2021GL095697
Pages (from-to)	1-11
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	49
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2021gl095697
Publication status	Published - 16 Feb 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
B. Noël was funded by the NWO VENI grant VI.Veni.192.019. B. Wouters and J. M. Haacker were funded by NWO VIDI Grant 016.Vidi.171.063. This publication was also supported by the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (NESSC) and PROTECT. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869 304, PROTECT contribution number 28.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022. The Authors.

Keywords

Blue Blob
Iceland
RACMO
climate projection
glaciers
surface mass balance

Access to Document

10.1029/2021gl095697Licence: CC BY

Geophysical Research Letters - 2022 - No l - North Atlantic Cooling is Slowing Down Mass Loss of Icelandic GlaciersFinal published version, 4.64 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{3c324eb1ed9e442ba3214929382c3503,

title = "North Atlantic Cooling is Slowing Down Mass Loss of Icelandic Glaciers",

abstract = "Icelandic glaciers have been losing mass since the Little Ice Age in the mid-to-late 1800s, with higher mass loss rates in the early 21st century, followed by a slowdown since 2011. As of yet, it remains unclear whether this mass loss slowdown will persist in the future. By reconstructing the contemporary (1958–2019) surface mass balance of Icelandic glaciers, we show that the post-2011 mass loss slowdown coincides with the development of the Blue Blob, an area of regional cooling in the North Atlantic Ocean to the south of Greenland. This regional cooling signal mitigates atmospheric warming in Iceland since 2011, in turn decreasing glacier mass loss through reduced meltwater runoff. In a future high-end warming scenario, North Atlantic cooling is projected to mitigate mass loss of Icelandic glaciers until the mid-2050s. High mass loss rates resume thereafter as the regional cooling signal weakens.",

keywords = "Blue Blob, Iceland, RACMO, climate projection, glaciers, surface mass balance",

author = "Brice No{\"e}l and Gu{\dh}finna A{\dh}algeirsd{\'o}ttir and Finnur P{\'a}lsson and Bert Wouters and Stef Lhermitte and Haacker, {Jan M.} and {van den Broeke}, {Michiel R.}",

note = "Funding Information: B. No{\"e}l was funded by the NWO VENI grant VI.Veni.192.019. B. Wouters and J. M. Haacker were funded by NWO VIDI Grant 016.Vidi.171.063. This publication was also supported by the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (NESSC) and PROTECT. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869 304, PROTECT contribution number 28. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022. The Authors.",

year = "2022",

month = feb,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1029/2021gl095697",

language = "English",

volume = "49",

pages = "1--11",

journal = "Geophysical Research Letters",

issn = "0094-8276",

publisher = "John Wiley and Sons Inc.",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - North Atlantic Cooling is Slowing Down Mass Loss of Icelandic Glaciers

AU - Noël, Brice

AU - Aðalgeirsdóttir, Guðfinna

AU - Pálsson, Finnur

AU - Wouters, Bert

AU - Lhermitte, Stef

AU - Haacker, Jan M.

AU - van den Broeke, Michiel R.

N1 - Funding Information: B. Noël was funded by the NWO VENI grant VI.Veni.192.019. B. Wouters and J. M. Haacker were funded by NWO VIDI Grant 016.Vidi.171.063. This publication was also supported by the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (NESSC) and PROTECT. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869 304, PROTECT contribution number 28. Publisher Copyright: © 2022. The Authors.

PY - 2022/2/16

Y1 - 2022/2/16

N2 - Icelandic glaciers have been losing mass since the Little Ice Age in the mid-to-late 1800s, with higher mass loss rates in the early 21st century, followed by a slowdown since 2011. As of yet, it remains unclear whether this mass loss slowdown will persist in the future. By reconstructing the contemporary (1958–2019) surface mass balance of Icelandic glaciers, we show that the post-2011 mass loss slowdown coincides with the development of the Blue Blob, an area of regional cooling in the North Atlantic Ocean to the south of Greenland. This regional cooling signal mitigates atmospheric warming in Iceland since 2011, in turn decreasing glacier mass loss through reduced meltwater runoff. In a future high-end warming scenario, North Atlantic cooling is projected to mitigate mass loss of Icelandic glaciers until the mid-2050s. High mass loss rates resume thereafter as the regional cooling signal weakens.

AB - Icelandic glaciers have been losing mass since the Little Ice Age in the mid-to-late 1800s, with higher mass loss rates in the early 21st century, followed by a slowdown since 2011. As of yet, it remains unclear whether this mass loss slowdown will persist in the future. By reconstructing the contemporary (1958–2019) surface mass balance of Icelandic glaciers, we show that the post-2011 mass loss slowdown coincides with the development of the Blue Blob, an area of regional cooling in the North Atlantic Ocean to the south of Greenland. This regional cooling signal mitigates atmospheric warming in Iceland since 2011, in turn decreasing glacier mass loss through reduced meltwater runoff. In a future high-end warming scenario, North Atlantic cooling is projected to mitigate mass loss of Icelandic glaciers until the mid-2050s. High mass loss rates resume thereafter as the regional cooling signal weakens.

KW - Blue Blob

KW - Iceland

KW - RACMO

KW - climate projection

KW - glaciers

KW - surface mass balance

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125035720&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1029/2021gl095697

DO - 10.1029/2021gl095697

M3 - Letter

SN - 0094-8276

VL - 49

SP - 1

EP - 11

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

IS - 3

M1 - e2021GL095697

ER -

North Atlantic Cooling is Slowing Down Mass Loss of Icelandic Glaciers

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this