Glaciers in the High Arctic and recent environmental change

1995 ◽  
Vol 352 (1699) ◽  
pp. 321-334 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Geological Evidence ◽  
Recent Climate ◽  
Severnaya Zemlya ◽  
Energy Balance Approach

High Arctic climate change over the last few hundred years includes the relatively cool Little Ice Age (LIA), followed by warming over the last hundred years or so. Meteorological data from the Eurasian High Arctic (Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya) and Canadian High Arctic islands are scarce before the mid-20th century, but longer records from Svalbard and Greenland show warming from about 1910-1920. Logs of Royal Navy ships in the Canadian Northwest Passage in the 1850s indicate temperatures cooler by 1-2.5 °C during the LIA. Other evidence of recent trends in High Arctic temperatures and precipitation is derived from ice cores, which show cooler temperatures (by 2-3 °C) for several hundred years before 1900, with high interdecadal variability. The proportion of melt layers in ice cores has also risen over the last 70-130 years, indicating warming. There is widespread geological evidence of glacier retreat in the High Arctic since about the turn of the century linked to the end of the LIA. An exception is the rapid advance of some surge-type ice masses. Mass balance measurements on ice caps in Arctic Canada, Svalbard and Severnaya Zemlya since 1950 show either negative or near-zero net balances, suggesting glacier response to recent climate warming. Glacier-climate links are modelled using an energy balance approach to predict glacier response to possible future climate warming, and cooler LIA temperatures. For Spitsbergen glaciers, a negative shift in mass balance of about 0.5 m a -1 is predicted for a 1 °C warming. A cooling of about 0.6 °C, or a 23% precipitation increase, would produce an approximately zero net mass balance. A ‘greenhouse-induced’ warming of 1 °C in the High Arctic is predicted to produce a global sea-level rise of 0.063 mm a -1 from ice cap melting.

scholarly journals Diagnosing the decline in climatic mass balance of glaciers in Svalbard over 1957–2014

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torbjørn Ims Østby ◽  
Thomas Vikhamar Schuler ◽  
Jon Ove Hagen ◽  
Regine Hock ◽  
Jack Kohler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Linear Trend ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Marked Change ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago ◽  
Summer Temperatures

Abstract. Estimating the long-term mass balance of the high-Arctic Svalbard archipelago is difficult due to the incomplete geodetic and direct glaciological measurements, both in space and time. To close these gaps, we use a coupled surface energy balance and snow pack model to analyse the mass changes of all Svalbard glaciers for the period 1957–2014. The model is forced by ERA-40 and ERA-Interim reanalysis data, downscaled to 1 km resolution. The model is validated using snow/firn temperature and density measurements, mass balance from stakes and ice cores, meteorological measurements, snow depths from radar profiles and remotely sensed surface albedo and skin temperatures. Overall model performance is good, but it varies regionally. Over the entire period the model yields a climatic mass balance of 8.2 cm w. e.  yr−1, which corresponds to a mass input of 175 Gt. Climatic mass balance has a linear trend of −1.4 ± 0.4 cm w. e.  yr−2 with a shift from a positive to a negative regime around 1980. Modelled mass balance exhibits large interannual variability, which is controlled by summer temperatures and further amplified by the albedo feedback. For the recent period 2004–2013 climatic mass balance was −21 cm w. e.  yr−1, and accounting for frontal ablation estimated by Błaszczyk et al.(2009) yields a total Svalbard mass balance of −39 cm w. e.  yr−1 for this 10-year period. In terms of eustatic sea level, this corresponds to a rise of 0.037 mm yr−1. Refreezing of water in snow and firn is substantial at 22 cm w. e.  yr−1 or 26 % of total annual accumulation. However, as warming leads to reduced firn area over the period, refreezing decreases both absolutely and relative to the total accumulation. Negative mass balance and elevated equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) resulted in massive reduction of the thick (>  2 m) firn extent and an increase in the superimposed ice, thin (<  2 m) firn and bare ice extents. Atmospheric warming also leads to a marked change in the thermal regime, with cooling of the glacier mid-elevation and warming in the ablation zone and upper firn areas. On the long-term, by removing the thermal barrier, this warming has implications for the vertical transfer of surface meltwater through the glacier and down to the base, influencing basal hydrology, sliding and thereby overall glacier motion.

scholarly journals Proxy-based 300-year High Arctic climate warming record from Svalbard

Polar Record ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 132-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomi P. Luoto ◽  
Antti E. K. Ojala ◽  
Marek Zajaczkowski
Keyword(s):  
Climate Warming ◽  
Break Point ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Arctic Climate ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Summer Temperatures ◽  
Meteorological Observations ◽  
Arctic Climate Change

AbstractWe used fossil Chironomidae assemblages and the transfer function approach to reconstruct summer air temperatures over the past 300 years from a High Arctic lake in Hornsund, Svalbard. Our aims were to compare reconstructed summer temperatures with observed (last 100 years) seasonal temperatures, to determine a potential climate warming break point in the temperature series and to assess the significance and rate of the climate warming trend at the study site. The reconstructed temperatures were consistent with a previous proxy record from Svalbard and showed good correlation with the meteorological observations from Bjørnøya and Longyearbyen. From the current palaeoclimate record, we found a significant climate warming threshold in the 1930s, after which the temperatures rapidly increased. We also found that the climate warming trend was strong and statistically significant. Compared with the reconstructed Little Ice Age temperatures in late eighteenth century cooling culmination, the present day summer temperatures are >4°C higher and the temperature increase since the 1930s has been 0.5°C per decade. These results highlight the exceptionally rapid recent warming of southern Svalbard and add invaluable information on the seasonality of High Arctic climate change and Arctic amplification.

scholarly journals Recent Climatic Mass Balance of the Schiaparelli Glacier at the Monte Sarmiento Massif and Reconstruction of Little Ice Age Climate by Simulating Steady-State Glacier Conditions

Geosciences ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 272
Author(s):  
Stephanie Suzanne Weidemann ◽  
Jorge Arigony-Neto ◽  
Ricardo Jaña ◽  
Guilherme Netto ◽  
Inti Gonzalez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Mass Balance ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Similar Rate ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Recent Climate

The Cordillera Darwin Icefield loses mass at a similar rate as the Northern and Southern Patagonian Icefields, showing contrasting individual glacier responses, particularly between the north-facing and south-facing glaciers, which are subject to changing climate conditions. Detailed investigations of climatic mass balance processes on recent glacier behavior are not available for glaciers of the Cordillera Darwin Icefield and surrounding icefields. We therefore applied the coupled snow and ice energy and mass balance model in Python (COSIPY) to assess recent surface energy and mass balance variability for the Schiaparelli Glacier at the Monte Sarmiento Massif. We further used COSIPY to simulate steady-state glacier conditions during the Little Ice Age using information of moraine systems and glacier areal extent. The model is driven by downscaled 6-hourly atmospheric data and high resolution precipitation fields, obtained by using an analytical orographic precipitation model. Precipitation and air temperature offsets to present-day climate were considered to reconstruct climatic conditions during the Little Ice Age. A glacier-wide mean annual climatic mass balance of −1.8 ± 0.36 m w.e. a − 1 was simulated between between April 2000 and March 2017. An air temperature decrease between −0.9 ° C and −1.7 ° C in combination with a precipitation offset of up to +60% to recent climate conditions is necessary to simulate steady-state conditions for Schiaparelli Glacier in 1870.

scholarly journals Recent climate warming drives ecological change in a remote high-Arctic lake

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lineke Woelders ◽  
Jan T. M. Lenaerts ◽  
Kimberley Hagemans ◽  
Keechy Akkerman ◽  
Thomas B. van Hoof ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Warming ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Arctic Lake ◽  
Recent Climate

Recent changes in climate and permafrost temperatures at forested and polar desert sites in northern Canada1This article is one of a series of papers published in this CJES Special Issue on the theme of Fundamental and applied research on permafrost in Canada.

2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 914-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon L. Smith ◽  
Jennifer Throop ◽  
Antoni G. Lewkowicz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Warming ◽  
Thermal Response ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Ground Temperature ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Polar Desert ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Recent Climate ◽  
Temperature Records ◽  
The 1960S

Climate and ground temperature records up to 30 years in length from permafrost monitoring sites in a polar desert at Alert, Nunavut, and a boreal forest at Table Mountain, Northwest Territories, were analyzed by season and year to assess the ground thermal response to recent climate warming. Methods were developed to standardize incomplete ground temperature data sets and to hindcast air temperatures for comparative analysis. The timing and magnitude of climate warming varied, beginning in the 1960s in the Mackenzie Valley and the 1970s in the High Arctic. Ground temperature increases occurred in both regions but varied in magnitude and timing in relation to the external forcing and permafrost conditions. Significant increases in winter air temperatures in both regions appear to be largely responsible for recent increases in ground temperature, particularly at the polar desert sites where snow cover is minimal.

The Mass Balance of Circum-Arctic Glaciers and Recent Climate Change

1997 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian A. Dowdeswell ◽  
Jon Ove Hagen ◽  
Helgi Björnsson ◽  
Andrey F. Glazovsky ◽  
William D. Harrison ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Surface Mass Balance ◽  
Mass Balances ◽  
Negative Mass ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Ice Caps ◽  
Recent Climate ◽  
Arctic Ice

The sum of winter accumulation and summer losses of mass from glaciers and ice sheets (net surface mass balance) varies with changing climate. In the Arctic, glaciers and ice caps, excluding the Greenland Ice Sheet, cover about 275,000 km2of both the widely glacierized archipelagos of the Canadian, Norwegian, and Russian High Arctic and the area north of about 60°N in Alaska, Iceland, and Scandinavia. Since the 1940s, surface mass balance time-series of varying length have been acquired from more than 40 Arctic ice caps and glaciers. Most Arctic glaciers have experienced predominantly negative net surface mass balance over the past few decades. There is no uniform recent trend in mass balance for the entire Arctic, although some regional trends occur. Examples are the increasingly negative mass balances for northern Alaska, due to higher summer temperatures, and increasingly positive mass balances for maritime Scandinavia and Iceland, due to increased winter precipitation. The negative mass balance of most Arctic glaciers may be a response to a step-like warming in the early twentieth century at the termination of the cold Little Ice Age. Arctic ice masses outside Greenland are at present contributing about 0.13 mm yr−1to global sea-level rise.

scholarly journals Quantifying the Mass Balance of Ice Caps on Severnaya Zemlya, Russian High Arctic. I: Climate and Mass Balance of the Vavilov Ice Cap

2006 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. P. Bassford ◽  
M. J. Siegert ◽  
J. A. Dowdeswell ◽  
J. Oerlemans ◽  
A. F. Glazovsky ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Ice Caps ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
Severnaya Zemlya

scholarly journals Diagnosing the decline in climatic mass balance of glaciers in Svalbard over 1957–2014

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torbjørn Ims Østby ◽  
Thomas Vikhamar Schuler ◽  
Jon Ove Hagen ◽  
Regine Hock ◽  
Jack Kohler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Linear Trend ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago ◽  
Resolution Model ◽  
Summer Temperatures ◽  
Frontal Ablation

Abstract. Longterm mass balance of all glaciers of the high Arctic Svalbard archipelago is difficult to achieve due to spatial and temporal incompleteness of geodetic and direct glaciological measurements. To close these gaps, we use a coupled surface energy balance and snow pack model to analyze Svalbard glacier mass changes and its evolution for the period 1957–2014. The model is forced by ERA-40 and ERA-Interim reanalysis data downscaled to 1 km resolution. Model validation is based on measured snow/firn temperature and density, mass balance from stakes and ice cores, meteorological measurements, snow depths from radar profiles and remotely sensed surface albedo and skin temperatures. Overall model performance is good, but varies regionally. Over the entire period the model yields a climatic mass balance of 8.2 cm w.e. yr−1 which correspond to a mass surplus (excluding frontal ablation) of 175 Gt. Climatic mass balance has a linear trend of −1.4 &amp;pm; 0.4 cm w.e. yr−2 with a shift from a positive to negative regime around 1980. Modeled mass balance exhibit large interannual variability, which is controlled by summer temperatures and further amplified by albedo feedback. For the period 2004–2013 climatic mass balance was −21 cm w.e. yr−1, and accounting for frontal ablation estimated by Błaszczyk et al. (2009) yields a total Svalbard mass balance of −39 cm w.e. yr−1 for this 10 year period. In terms of eustatic sea level, this corresponds to a rise of 0.037 mm yr−1. Refreezing of water in snow and firn is substantial at 22 cm w.e. yr−1, or 26 % of the accumulation. However, as warming lead to reduced firn area over the period, refreezing decrease both absolutely and relative to the mass budget. Negative mass balance and elevated equilibrium lines result in a massive loss of the thick firn (> 2 m) extent and an increase of the superimposed ice, thin firn (

scholarly journals Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Balance Reconstruction. Part II: Surface Mass Balance (1840–2010)*

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (18) ◽  
pp. 6974-6989 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason E. Box
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Surface Mass Balance ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Regional Climate Model Output

Abstract Meteorological station records, ice cores, and regional climate model output are combined to develop a continuous 171-yr (1840–2010) reconstruction of Greenland ice sheet climatic surface mass balance (Bclim) and its subcomponents including near-surface air temperature (SAT) since the end of the Little Ice Age. Independent observations are used to assess and compensate errors. Melt water production is computed using separate degree-day factors for snow and bare ice surfaces. A simple meltwater retention scheme yields the time variation of internal accumulation, runoff, and bare ice area. At decadal time scales over the 1840–2010 time span, summer (June–August) SAT increased by 1.6°C, driving a 59% surface meltwater production increase. Winter warming was +2.0°C. Substantial interdecadal variability linked with episodic volcanism and atmospheric circulation anomalies is also evident. Increasing accumulation and melt rates, bare ice area, and meltwater retention are driven by increasing SAT. As a consequence of increasing accumulation and melt rates, calculated meltwater retention by firn increased 51% over the period, nearly compensating a 63% runoff increase. Calculated ice sheet end of melt season bare ice area increased more than 5%. Multiple regression of interannual SAT and precipitation anomalies suggests a dominance of melting on Bclim and a positive SAT precipitation sensitivity (+32 Gt yr−1 K−1 or 6.8% K−1). The Bclim component magnitudes from this study are compared with results from Hanna et al. Periods of shared interannual variability are evident. However, the long-term trend in accumulation differs in sign.

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