Near-surface ice temperature measurements from Western Greenland, 2011-2017

This dataset contains time-series measurements of near-surface ice temperature taken from shallow boreholes in western Greenland. Understanding the coupling between an ice sheet and the climate is important for knowing the ice sheet's surface mass balance and its associated contribution to sea level rise. These measurements provide some insight on the thermodynamic coupling between the two systems. Curiously, measured ice temperatures are consistently warmer than the measured air temperature. Hills et al. (in review) explores several heat transfer mechanisms which could be associated with the warm anomaly in ice temperature. One possible explanation is subsurface refreezing of meltwater because, in several cases, rapid heating events were observed below 5-10 m of cold ice. However, these heating events were not observed in all temperature strings, so they cannot be considered ubiquitous in Greenland's ablation zone. Hills, B. H., Harper, J. T., Meierbachtol, T. W., Johnson, J. V., Humphrey, N. F., & Wright, P. J. (in review). Processes influencing near-surface heat transfer in Greenland's ablation zone. The Cryosphere Discussions.