Detecting the Greenland Ice Sheet Strong Surface Melt During Summer 2021 using SMAP L-Band Microwave Radiometry

Due to their larger penetration and sensing depth, low frequency microwave measurements have been recently employed to detect ice sheet melt events. In this paper, the response of NASA's SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) L-band measurements to surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet from 2015 through 2021 is investigated. SMAP covers virtually the entire Greenland ice sheet twice a day with its L-band (1.4 GHz) radiometer. The results show that the ice sheet experienced unusually strong surface melting on August 14,2021, which extended the melt area across much of dry snow zone over a period of two days. Moreover, the observational results agree well with model simulations conducted using Glacier Energy and Mass Balance (GEMB) module within the Ice-sheet and Sea-level System Model (ISSM).