The research findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters, revealed the sensitivity of the Ice Sheet to recent climate change, and can be used to help predict the Ice Sheet's future response to global warming.

The study looked at the overall changes of the Greenland Ice Sheet's mass balance over the last 50 years by splitting these changes into surface mass balance (meteorologically-driven) and ice discharge (internal ice dynamics) contributions, which no other study has yet been able to achieve.

The study was conducted by an international team of academics led by Professor Eric Rignot of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California and included Dr. Edward Hanna, from the University of Sheffield's Department of Geography. They compared satellite and aircraft measurements of ice discharge (the amount of ice being discharged from the Ice Sheet at various locations) with surface mass balance changes (the snow gained each year minus the snow and ice lost through surface melt). They found that ice discharge contributed around 60% more variation than surface mass balance to the total Greenland Ice Sheet mass balance.

As global temperatures have risen over the last 10-15 years, several major Greenland glaciers have recently undergone dramatic changes. This research will now enable further studies to more reliably predict the likely effects of climate change on the Ice Sheet.

Dr Edward Hanna said: "There hasn't been a lot of previous work linking glaciological with meteorological changes on the Greenland Ice Sheet because scientists in different disciplines have not always worked together, but luckily this is changing. Our unique overview should prove useful for interpreting the sensitivity and response of the Greenland Ice Sheet to ongoing climate change including human-induced global warming."



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