If the precipitation is snow then I understand the analysis. But if it is rain surely this will tend to increase the melt rather than counteract it. My apologies if this has been raised before.
Not a problem...
Quote from DMI
Melting does not in itself necessarily give rise to mass loss, however. Much of the meltwater will refreeze in the surface snow layers rather than running off the ice sheet, and this process is included in the calculations of surface mass balance which is why the melt area plot may differ from the areas of negative mass balance seen on the map “Daily change”. Likewise, sublimation does not count as melting and surface mass balance can therefore occur with the surface temperature being far below the melting point. See further discussions of the difference between surface mass balance and melting here.
BUT.. there is a paper somewhere talking about how increased rain events (even in winter!) must in the end cause greater run-off. The run-off is part of the DMI
model that calculates SMB loss or gain. I bet there are heated discussions about the rain,
and rain + surface melting percolating through the ice sheet to bedrock and finding its way to the ocean.
You will see from the SMB map how few meteo stations there are on Greenland, and even so it is better than it was. Lack of field observations limits the ability to test models against reality = the story of the Arctic and even more so in the Antarctic.
Meanwhile.....
Data from...
http://polarportal.dk/en/greenland/surface-conditions/
http://ensemblesrt3.dmi.dk/data/prudence/temp/PLA/PP_GSMB/
Data as at 29 July 2020.Melt STILL very much above average as it has been for such a long time.
But on this day melt is down to 37.6% from 41.4% of the surface area of Greenland.
AND
Precipitation lower than ysterday.
As a result was a daily
SMB loss increased to 4.3 G from 1.8 GT, average for this day. This time a demonstration of how a lower precipitation has more effect than a lower melt on SMB loss.
Precipitation looks as if it may be less in the next few days but......
Melt looks possibly to be high but not as high as now for a few more days more.
So we just might (or might not) see some above average SMB loss in the next few days.
SMB gain for this year to date is at 372 GT, a few GT above the average for the year-end (31 August) of about 370 GT. (see smb-graph)