Summer Greenland Blocking Diversity and Its Impact on the Surface Mass Balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Abstract

AbstractThe increase in Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) surface runoff since the turn of the century has been linked to a rise in Greenland blocking frequency. However, a range of synoptic patterns can be considered blocked flow and efforts that summarize all blocking types indiscriminately likely fail to capture consequential differences in GrIS response. To account for these differences, we employ ERA5 reanalysis to identify summer blocking using two independent blocking metrics: the Greenland Blocking Index (GBI) and the blocking index of Pelly and Hoskins (2003, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(2003)060<0743:ANPOB>2.0.CO;2). We then conduct a self‐organizing map analysis to objectively classify synoptic conditions during Greenland blocking episodes and identify three primary blocking types: (a) a high‐amplitude Omega block, (b) a lower‐amplitude, stationary summer ridge, and (c) a cyclonic wave breaking pattern. Using Modèle Atmosphérique Régional output, we document the spatiotemporal progression of the surface energy and mass balance for each blocking type. Relative to all blocking episodes, summer ridge patterns produce more melt over the southern ice sheet, Omega blocks produce more melt across the northern ice sheet, and cyclonic wave breaking patterns produce more melt in northeast Greenland. Our results indicate that the recent trend in summer Greenland blocking was largely driven by an increase in Omega patterns and suggest that Omega blocks have played a central role in the recent acceleration of GrIS mass loss. Furthermore, the GBI exhibited a relative bias toward Omega patterns, which may help explain why it has measured stronger trends in summer Greenland blocking than other blocking metrics.