• Dark zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet controlled by distributed biologically-active impurities 

      Ryan, Jonathan C.; Hubbard, Alun Lloyd; Stibal, Marek; Irvine-Fynn, Tristam D.; Cook, Joseph; Smith, Lawrence C.; Cameron, Karen; Box, Jason E (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2018-03-14)
      Albedo—a primary control on surface melt—varies considerably across the Greenland Ice Sheet yet the specific surface types that comprise its dark zone remain unquantified. Here we use UAV imagery to attribute seven distinct surface types to observed albedo along a 25 km transect dissecting the western, ablating sector of the ice sheet. Our results demonstrate that distributed surface impurities—an ...
    • Derivation of High Spatial Resolution Albedo from UAV Digital Imagery: Application over the Greenland Ice Sheet 

      Ryan, Jonathan C.; Hubbard, Alun Lloyd; Box, Jason E.; Brough, Stephen; Cameron, Karen; Cook, Joseph M.; Cooper, Matthew; Doyle, Samuel H.; Edwards, Arwyn; Holt, Tom; Irvine-Fynn, Tristram; Jones, Christine; Pitcher, Lincoln H.; Rennermalm, Åsa K.; Smith, Laurence C.; Stibal, Marek; Snooke, Neal (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2017-05-23)
      Measurements of albedo are a prerequisite for modeling surface melt across the Earth’s cryosphere, yet available satellite products are limited in spatial and/or temporal resolution. Here, we present a practical methodology to obtain centimeter resolution albedo products with accuracies of ±5% using consumer-grade digital camera and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies. Our method comprises ...
    • Direct measurements of meltwater runoff on the Greenland ice sheet surface 

      Smith, Laurence C.; Yang, Kang; Pitcher, Lincoln H.; Overstreet, Brandon T.; Chu, Vena W.; Rennermalm, Åsa K.; Ryan, Jonathan C.; Cooper, Matthew G.; Gleason, Colin J.; Tedesco, Marco; Jeyaratnam, Jeyavinoth; van As, Dirk; van den Broeke, Michiel R.; van de Berg, Willem Jan; Noël, Brice; Langen, Peter L.; Cullather, Richard I.; Zhao, Bin; Willis, Michael J.; Hubbard, Alun Lloyd; Box, Jason E.; Jenner, Brittany A.; Behar, Alberto E. (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2017-12-05)
      Meltwater runoff from the Greenland ice sheet surface influences surface mass balance (SMB), ice dynamics, and global sea level rise, but is estimated with climate models and thus difficult to validate. We present a way to measure ice surface runoff directly, from hourly in situ supraglacial river discharge measurements and simultaneous high-resolution satellite/drone remote sensing of upstream ...
    • Rapid Surface Lowering of Benito Glacier, Northern Patagonian Icefield 

      Ryan, Jonathan C.; Sessions, Martin; Wilson, Ryan; Wündrich, Olaf; Hubbard, Alun L. (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2018-05-01)
      The Patagonian Icefields, which straddle the Andes below 46°S, are two of the most sensitive ice masses on Earth to climate change. However, recent mass loss from the icefields along with its spatial and temporal variability is not well-constrained. Here we determine surface elevation changes of Benito Glacier, a 163 km2 outlet glacier draining the western flank of the North Patagonian Icefield, ...
    • Temporal Variability of Surface Reflectance Supersedes Spatial Resolution in Defining Greenland’s Bare-Ice Albedo 

      Irvine-Fynn, Tristram D. L.; Bunting, Peter S.; Cook, Joseph M.; Hubbard, Alun; Barrand, Nicholas E.; Hanna, Edward; Hardy, Andy J.; Hodson, Andrew J.; Holt, Tom O.; Huss, Matthias; McQuaid, James B.; Nilsson, Johan; Naegeli, Kathrin; Roberts, Osian; Ryan, Jonathan C.; Tedstone, Andrew J.; Tranter, Martyn; Williamson, Christopher J. (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2021-12-23)
      Ice surface albedo is a primary modulator of melt and runoff, yet our understanding of how reflectance varies over time across the Greenland Ice Sheet remains poor. This is due to a disconnect between point or transect scale albedo sampling and the coarser spatial, spectral and/or temporal resolutions of available satellite products. Here, we present time-series of bare-ice surface reflectance data ...