New Hydrometeorological Observations from Inglefield Land and Thule, NW Greenland

Abstract. Meltwater runoff from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is an important contributor to global sea level rise, but substantial uncertainty exists in its measurement and prediction. Common approaches for estimating ice sheet runoff are in situ gauging of proglacial rivers draining the ice sheet, and surface mass balance (SMB) modeling. To obtain hydrological and meteorological datasets suitable for both runoff characterization and SMB model validation, we established an automated weather station (AWS) and cluster of traditional and experimental river stage sensors on the Minturn River, the largest proglacial river draining Inglefield Land, NW Greenland. Secondary installations measuring river stage were installed in the Fox Canyon River and North River at Thule Air Base, NW Greenland. Proglacial runoff at these sites is dominated by supraglacial processes only, uniquely advantaging them for SMB studies. The three installations provide rare hydrological time-series and an opportunity to evaluate experimental measurements of river stage from a harsh, little-studied polar region. The installed instruments include submerged vented and non-vented pressure transducers, a bubbler sensor, experimental bank-mounted laser rangefinders, and time-lapse cameras. The first three years of observations (2019 to 2021) from these stations indicate a) a meltwater runoff season from late June to late August/early September, roughly synchronous throughout the region; b) early onset (~ June 23 to July 8) of a strong diurnal runoff signal in 2019 and 2020, suggesting minimal meltwater storage in snow/firn; c) one-day lagged air temperature displays the strongest correlation with river stage; d) river stage correlates more strongly with ablation zone albedo than with net radiation; and e) late-summer rain-on-ice events appear to trigger the region’s sharpest and largest floods. The new gauging stations provide valuable in situ hydrological observations from a little-studied, rapidly changing area and are freely available through the PROMICE network (https://promice.org/weather-stations/).