Greenland decadal frontal ablation 2000 to 2020

In Greenland, 87% of the glacierized area ends in the ocean, but mass lost at the ice-ocean interface, or frontal ablation, has not yet been fully quantified for every glacier. We estimate frontal ablation of the 213 outlet and 537 peripheral glaciers of Greenland and find a total frontal ablation of 438.5 ± 7.2 Gt a-1 for 2000-2010 and 466.1 ± 6.2 Gt a-1 for 2010-2020. Ice discharge accounted for 90% and 92% of frontal ablation during these periods, respectively, while volume loss due to terminus retreat comprised the remainder. Only 15 glaciers were responsible for the majority (> 50%) of frontal ablation from 2010 to 2020. These estimates, along with the climatic-basal balance, allow for a more complete accounting of Greenland Ice Sheet and peripheral glacier mass balance. In total, Greenland accounted for 89.5% and 91.1% of northern hemisphere frontal ablation for 2000-2010, and 2010-2020, respectively. Here, we provide the fluxgates, attributes (velocity and thickness) at points along the fluxgates, and final frontal ablation estimates as spatial datasets. The frontal ablation calculations are available in a spreadsheet with frontal ablation by decade (2000-2010 and 2010-2020) with associated glacier characteristics that are most important (i.e. average velocity, terminus area lost, average thickness, etc). We provide a longitude/latitude for each glacier that is centered on the manually drawn fluxgates we made for each glacier.