Understanding surface melt over the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is important for evaluating the effect of the changing global climate on humanity, and for forecasting sea level rise. We demonstrate a recently developed L-band passive microwave algorithm for the retrieval of snow liquid water and snow and firn density over the GrIS. The retrievals are performed using brightness temperatures from the ESA SMOS satellite. The density retrievals show potential for mapping the equilibrium line altitude of the ice sheet by determining where retrieved densities exceed typical seasonal snowpack density, thus indicating the presence of firn. We integrate snow liquid water retrievals over area and time to obtain water column maps and daily estimates of the surface liquid water present over Greenland. The integrated annual surface liquid water retrieved over the entire ice sheet compares on the same order as modeled estimates of total meltwater available in current literature.

了解格陵兰冰原（GrIS）上的表面融化对于评估全球气候变化对人类的影响以及预测海平面上升非常重要。我们演示了最近开发的L波段无源微波算法，用于通过GrIS检索积雪的液态水以及积雪和杉木密度。使用来自ESA SMOS卫星的亮度温度执行检索。密度取回显示出潜力，可通过确定取回的密度超过典型的季节性积雪密度来确定冰盖的平衡线高度，从而表明存在着火星。我们对整个地区和时间的积雪液态水取回进行整合，以获得水柱图和格陵兰岛上地表液态水的每日估算值。