Premium
The recent warming trend in North Greenland
Author(s) -
Orsi Anais J.,
Kawamura Kenji,
MassonDelmotte Valerie,
Fettweis Xavier,
Box Jason E.,
DahlJensen Dorthe,
Clow Gary D.,
Landais Amaelle,
Severinghaus Jeffrey P.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2016gl072212
Subject(s) - environmental science , climatology , eemian , arctic , global warming , greenland ice sheet , atmospheric sciences , climate change , geology , ice sheet , glacial period , oceanography , geomorphology , interglacial
The Arctic is among the fastest warming regions on Earth, but it is also one with limited spatial coverage of multidecadal instrumental surface air temperature measurements. Consequently, atmospheric reanalyses are relatively unconstrained in this region, resulting in a large spread of estimated 30 year recent warming trends, which limits their use to investigate the mechanisms responsible for this trend. Here we present a surface temperature reconstruction over 1982–2011 at NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling Project, 51°W, 77°N), in North Greenland, based on the inversion of borehole temperature and inert gas isotope data. We find that NEEM has warmed by 2.7 ± 0.33°C over the past 30 years, from the long‐term 1900–1970 average of −28.55 ± 0.29°C. The warming trend is principally caused by an increase in downward longwave heat flux. Atmospheric reanalyses underestimate this trend by 17%, underlining the need for more in situ observations to validate reanalyses.