Weekly to monthly terminus variability of Greenland's marine-terminating outlet glaciers

Abstract

Seasonal terminus-position variability of Greenland's marine-terminating outlet glaciers is superimposed on multidecadal trends of glacier retreat. To characterize this seasonal variability, we manually digitized terminus positions for 219 marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland from January 2015 through December 2021 using Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mosaics. We digitized at a monthly frequency for 199 glaciers and at a 6 d frequency for 20 glaciers. We found that nearly 80 % of glacier termini in Greenland vary significantly on a seasonal basis. For these seasonally varying glaciers, on average, seasonal retreat typically begins in mid-May, and seasonal advance generally commences in early October. The timing of the initiation of the retreat period may be related to the timing of the onset of ice-sheet surface melt. The rate of retreat events peaks in late summer and reaches a minimum in late winter and early spring. The median magnitude of terminus-position seasonality, the difference between glacier length at the dates of peak advance and retreat, is about 220 m. We find a stronger correlation between this magnitude and glacier velocity than between magnitude and glacier width. Terminus-position seasonality can influence longer-term glacier dynamics and, consequently, ice-sheet mass balance. This study contributes to our understanding of terminus-position seasonality for individual glaciers and collectively for glaciers around the entire Greenland Ice Sheet.