Articles | Volume 15, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1845-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1845-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Spatially and temporally resolved ice loss in High Mountain Asia and the Gulf of Alaska observed by CryoSat-2 swath altimetry between 2010 and 2019
Earthwave Ltd, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
Noel Gourmelen
Earthwave Ltd, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP,
UK
IPGS UMR 7516, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Strasbourg,
67000, France
Martin Ewart
Earthwave Ltd, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
Stephen Plummer
European Space Agency, ESA-ESTEC, Noordwijk, 2201 AZ, the Netherlands
Related authors
Trystan Surawy-Stepney, Anna E. Hogg, Stephen L. Cornford, Benjamin J. Wallis, Benjamin J. Davison, Heather L. Selley, Ross A. W. Slater, Elise K. Lie, Livia Jakob, Andrew Ridout, Noel Gourmelen, Bryony I. D. Freer, Sally F. Wilson, and Andrew Shepherd
The Cryosphere, 18, 977–993, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-977-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-977-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Here, we use satellite observations and an ice flow model to quantify the impact of sea ice buttressing on ice streams on the Antarctic Peninsula. The evacuation of 11-year-old landfast sea ice in the Larsen B embayment on the East Antarctic Peninsula in January 2022 was closely followed by major changes in the calving behaviour and acceleration (30 %) of the ocean-terminating glaciers. Our results show that sea ice buttressing had a negligible direct role in the observed dynamic changes.
Thomas Slater, Isobel R. Lawrence, Inès N. Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Noel Gourmelen, Livia Jakob, Paul Tepes, Lin Gilbert, and Peter Nienow
The Cryosphere, 15, 233–246, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-233-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-233-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite observations are the best method for tracking ice loss, because the cryosphere is vast and remote. Using these, and some numerical models, we show that Earth has lost 28 trillion tonnes (Tt) of ice since 1994 from Arctic sea ice (7.6 Tt), ice shelves (6.5 Tt), mountain glaciers (6.1 Tt), the Greenland (3.8 Tt) and Antarctic ice sheets (2.5 Tt), and Antarctic sea ice (0.9 Tt). It has taken just 3.2 % of the excess energy Earth has absorbed due to climate warming to cause this ice loss.
Katie Lowery, Pierre Dutrieux, Paul R. Holland, Anna E. Hogg, Noel Gourmelen, and Benjamin J. Wallis
The Cryosphere, 19, 4893–4911, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4893-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4893-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Using CryoSat-2, we observe monthly changes in the Pine Island Glacier (PIG) ice shelf surface and derive oceanic melt at its base. Basal channels, kilometres wide, are reflected in the ice surface and captured in our observations. We demonstrate that melt is concentrated on the western walls of channels, that channels play a role in grounding pinning points, and that PIG's main channel geometry is inherited upstream of the grounding line. These results highlight the importance of channels to ice shelf stability.
Trystan Surawy-Stepney, Anna E. Hogg, Stephen L. Cornford, Benjamin J. Wallis, Benjamin J. Davison, Heather L. Selley, Ross A. W. Slater, Elise K. Lie, Livia Jakob, Andrew Ridout, Noel Gourmelen, Bryony I. D. Freer, Sally F. Wilson, and Andrew Shepherd
The Cryosphere, 18, 977–993, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-977-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-977-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Here, we use satellite observations and an ice flow model to quantify the impact of sea ice buttressing on ice streams on the Antarctic Peninsula. The evacuation of 11-year-old landfast sea ice in the Larsen B embayment on the East Antarctic Peninsula in January 2022 was closely followed by major changes in the calving behaviour and acceleration (30 %) of the ocean-terminating glaciers. Our results show that sea ice buttressing had a negligible direct role in the observed dynamic changes.
Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Rasmus Bahbah, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Natalia Havelund Andersen, Jade Bowling, Noel Gourmelen, Alex Horton, Nanna B. Karlsson, Amber Leeson, Jennifer Maddalena, Malcolm McMillan, Anne Solgaard, and Birgit Wessel
The Cryosphere, 18, 505–523, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-505-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-505-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Under the right topographic and hydrological conditions, lakes may form beneath the large ice sheets. Some of these subglacial lakes are active, meaning that they periodically drain and refill. When a subglacial lake drains rapidly, it may cause the ice surface above to collapse, and here we investigate how to improve the monitoring of active subglacial lakes in Greenland by monitoring how their associated collapse basins change over time.
Prateek Gantayat, Alison F. Banwell, Amber A. Leeson, James M. Lea, Dorthe Petersen, Noel Gourmelen, and Xavier Fettweis
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 5803–5823, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5803-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5803-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We developed a new supraglacial hydrology model for the Greenland Ice Sheet. This model simulates surface meltwater routing, meltwater drainage, supraglacial lake (SGL) overflow, and formation of lake ice. The model was able to reproduce 80 % of observed lake locations and provides a good match between the observed and modelled temporal evolution of SGLs.
Inès N. Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Erik R. Ivins, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Charles Amory, Michiel R. van den Broeke, Martin Horwath, Ian Joughin, Michalea D. King, Gerhard Krinner, Sophie Nowicki, Anthony J. Payne, Eric Rignot, Ted Scambos, Karen M. Simon, Benjamin E. Smith, Louise S. Sørensen, Isabella Velicogna, Pippa L. Whitehouse, Geruo A, Cécile Agosta, Andreas P. Ahlstrøm, Alejandro Blazquez, William Colgan, Marcus E. Engdahl, Xavier Fettweis, Rene Forsberg, Hubert Gallée, Alex Gardner, Lin Gilbert, Noel Gourmelen, Andreas Groh, Brian C. Gunter, Christopher Harig, Veit Helm, Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Christoph Kittel, Hannes Konrad, Peter L. Langen, Benoit S. Lecavalier, Chia-Chun Liang, Bryant D. Loomis, Malcolm McMillan, Daniele Melini, Sebastian H. Mernild, Ruth Mottram, Jeremie Mouginot, Johan Nilsson, Brice Noël, Mark E. Pattle, William R. Peltier, Nadege Pie, Mònica Roca, Ingo Sasgen, Himanshu V. Save, Ki-Weon Seo, Bernd Scheuchl, Ernst J. O. Schrama, Ludwig Schröder, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Thomas Slater, Giorgio Spada, Tyler C. Sutterley, Bramha Dutt Vishwakarma, Jan Melchior van Wessem, David Wiese, Wouter van der Wal, and Bert Wouters
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1597–1616, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
By measuring changes in the volume, gravitational attraction, and ice flow of Greenland and Antarctica from space, we can monitor their mass gain and loss over time. Here, we present a new record of the Earth’s polar ice sheet mass balance produced by aggregating 50 satellite-based estimates of ice sheet mass change. This new assessment shows that the ice sheets have lost (7.5 x 1012) t of ice between 1992 and 2020, contributing 21 mm to sea level rise.
Thomas Slater, Isobel R. Lawrence, Inès N. Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Noel Gourmelen, Livia Jakob, Paul Tepes, Lin Gilbert, and Peter Nienow
The Cryosphere, 15, 233–246, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-233-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-233-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite observations are the best method for tracking ice loss, because the cryosphere is vast and remote. Using these, and some numerical models, we show that Earth has lost 28 trillion tonnes (Tt) of ice since 1994 from Arctic sea ice (7.6 Tt), ice shelves (6.5 Tt), mountain glaciers (6.1 Tt), the Greenland (3.8 Tt) and Antarctic ice sheets (2.5 Tt), and Antarctic sea ice (0.9 Tt). It has taken just 3.2 % of the excess energy Earth has absorbed due to climate warming to cause this ice loss.
Cited articles
Arendt, A., Luthcke, S., Gardner, A., O'Neel, S., Hill, D.,
Moholdt, G., and Abdalati, W.: Analysis of a GRACE global mascon solution for
Gulf of Alaska glaciers, J. Glaciol., 59, 913–924,
https://doi.org/10.3189/2013JoG12J197, 2013.
Arendt, A. A., Echelmeyer, K. A., Harrison, W. D., Lingle, C. S., and
Valentine, V. B.: Rapid Wastage of Alaska Glaciers and Their Contribution to
Rising Sea Level, Science, 297, 382–386,
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1072497, 2002.
Bamber, J. L., Westaway, R. M., Marzeion, B., and Wouters, B.: The land ice
contribution to sea level during the satellite era, Environ. Res. Lett.,
13, 063008, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aac2f0, 2018.
Berthier, E., Schiefer, E., Clarke, G. K. C., Menounos, B., and Rémy, F.:
Contribution of Alaskan glaciers to sea-level rise derived from satellite
imagery, Nat. Geosci., 3, 92–95, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo737, 2010.
Berthier, E., Vincent, C., Magnússon, E., Gunnlaugsson, Á. Þ., Pitte, P., Le Meur, E., Masiokas, M., Ruiz, L., Pálsson, F., Belart, J. M. C., and Wagnon, P.: Glacier topography and elevation changes derived from Pléiades sub-meter stereo images, The Cryosphere, 8, 2275–2291, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-2275-2014, 2014.
Berthier, E., Cabot, V., Vincent, C. and Six, D.: Decadal Region-Wide and
Glacier-Wide Mass Balances Derived from Multi-Temporal ASTER Satellite
Digital Elevation Models. Validation over the Mont-Blanc Area, Front. Earth
Sci., 4, 63, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2016.00063, 2016.
Bisset, R. R., Dehecq, A., Goldberg, D. N., Huss, M., Bingham, R. G. and
Gourmelen, N.: Reversed Surface-Mass-Balance Gradients on Himalayan
Debris-Covered Glaciers Inferred from Remote Sensing, Remote Sens., 12,
1563, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12101563, 2020.
Bojinski, S., Verstraete, M., Peterson, T. C., Richter, C., Simmons, A., and
Zemp, M.: The Concept of Essential Climate Variables in Support of Climate
Research, Applications, and Policy, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 95,
1431–1443, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00047.1, 2014.
Bolch, T., Kulkarni, A., Kääb, A., Huggel, C., Paul, F., Cogley, J.
G., Frey, H., Kargel, J. S., Fujita, K., Scheel, M., Bajracharya, S., and
Stoffel, M.: The State and Fate of Himalayan Glaciers, Science, 336,
310–314, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1215828, 2012.
Bolch, T., Shea, J. M., Liu, S., Azam, F. M., Gao, Y., Gruber, S.,
Immerzeel, W. W., Kulkarni, A., Li, H., Tahir, A. A., Zhang, G., and Zhang,
Y.: Status and Change of the Cryosphere in the Extended Hindu Kush Himalaya
Region, in: The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment: Mountains, Climate Change,
Sustainability and People, edited by: Wester, P., Mishra, A., Mukherji, A., and
Shrestha, A. B., Springer International Publishing, Cham, 209–255,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1_7, 2019.
Brun, F., Berthier, E., Wagnon, P., Kääb, A., and Treichler, D.: A
spatially resolved estimate of High Mountain Asia glacier mass balances from
2000 to 2016, Nat. Geosci., 10, 668–673,
https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2999, 2017.
Ciracì, E., Velicogna, I., and Swenson, S.: Continuity of the Mass Loss
of the World's Glaciers and Ice Caps From the GRACE and GRACE Follow-On
Missions, Geophys. Res. Lett., 47, e2019GL086926,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086926, 2020.
Cogley, J. G.: Present and future states of Himalaya and Karakoram glaciers,
Ann. Glaciol., 52, 69–73, https://doi.org/10.3189/172756411799096277,
2011.
Dehecq, A., Gourmelen, N., Shepherd, A., Cullen, R., and Trouvé, E.:
Evaluation of CryoSat-2 for height retrieval over the Himalayan range,
CryoSat-2 third user workshop, Dresden, Germany, available at: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00973393 (last access: 25 March 2020),
2013.
Dehecq, A., Gourmelen, N., Gardner, A. S., Brun, F., Goldberg, D., Nienow,
P. W., Berthier, E., Vincent, C., Wagnon, P., and Trouvé, E.:
Twenty-first century glacier slowdown driven by mass loss in High Mountain
Asia, Nat. Geosci., 12, 22–27,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0271-9, 2019.
Farinotti, D., Longuevergne, L., Moholdt, G., Duethmann, D., Mölg, T.,
Bolch, T., Vorogushyn, S., and Güntner, A.: Substantial glacier mass loss
in the Tien Shan over the past 50 years, Nat. Geosci., 8, 716–722,
https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2513, 2015.
Farinotti, D., Huss, M., Fürst, J. J., Landmann, J., Machguth, H.,
Maussion, F., and Pandit, A.: A consensus estimate for the ice thickness
distribution of all glaciers on Earth, Nat. Geosci., 12, 168–173,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0300-3, 2019.
Farinotti, D., Immerzeel, W. W., de Kok, R. J., Quincey, D. J., and Dehecq,
A.: Manifestations and mechanisms of the Karakoram glacier Anomaly, Nat.
Geosci., 13, 8–16, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0513-5, 2020.
Fleming, S. W. and Whitfield, P. H.: Spatiotemporal mapping of ENSO and PDO
surface meteorological signals in British Columbia, Yukon, and southeast
Alaska, Atmos.-Ocean, 48, 122–131,
https://doi.org/10.3137/AO1107.2010, 2010.
Foresta, L., Gourmelen, N., Pálsson, F., Nienow, P., Björnsson, H.,
and Shepherd, A.: Surface elevation change and mass balance of Icelandic ice
caps derived from swath mode CryoSat-2 altimetry, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43,
12138–12145, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071485, 2016.
Foresta, L., Gourmelen, N., Weissgerber, F., Nienow, P., Williams, J. J.,
Shepherd, A., Drinkwater, M. R., and Plummer, S.: Heterogeneous and rapid ice
loss over the Patagonian Ice Fields revealed by CryoSat-2 swath radar
altimetry, Remote Sens. Environ., 211, 441–455,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.03.041, 2018.
Fujita, K. and Nuimura, T.: Spatially heterogeneous wastage of Himalayan
glaciers, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 108, 14011–14014,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1106242108, 2011.
Gardelle, J., Berthier, E., and Arnaud, Y.: Slight mass gain of Karakoram
glaciers in the early twenty-first century, Nat. Geosci., 5, 322–325,
https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1450, 2012.
Gardelle, J., Berthier, E., Arnaud, Y., and Kääb, A.: Region-wide glacier mass balances over the Pamir-Karakoram-Himalaya during 1999–2011, The Cryosphere, 7, 1263–1286, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1263-2013, 2013.
Gardner, A. S., Moholdt, G., Cogley, J. G., Wouters, B., Arendt, A. A.,
Wahr, J., Berthier, E., Hock, R., Pfeffer, W. T., Kaser, G., Ligtenberg, S.
R. M., Bolch, T., Sharp, M. J., Hagen, J. O., van den Broeke, M. R., and
Paul, F.: A Reconciled Estimate of Glacier Contributions to Sea Level Rise:
2003 to 2009, Science, 340, 852–857,
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1234532, 2013.
German Aerospace Center (DLR): TanDEM-X – Digital Elevation Model (DEM) –
Global, 90 m, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.15489/ju28hc7pui09, 2018.
Gourmelen, N., Escorihuela, M., Shepherd, A., Foresta, L., Muir, A.,
Garcia-Mondejar, A., Roca, M., Baker, S., and Drinkwater, M. R.: CryoSat-2
swath interferometric altimetry for mapping ice elevation and elevation
change, Adv. Space Res., 62, 1226-1242, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2017.11.014, 2018.
Gray, L., Burgess, D., Copland, L., Cullen, R., Galin, N., Hawley, R., and Helm, V.: Interferometric swath processing of Cryosat data for glacial ice topography, The Cryosphere, 7, 1857–1867, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1857-2013, 2013.
Gray, L., Burgess, D., Copland, L., Demuth, M. N., Dunse, T., Langley, K., and Schuler, T. V.: CryoSat-2 delivers monthly and inter-annual surface elevation change for Arctic ice caps, The Cryosphere, 9, 1895–1913, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1895-2015, 2015.
Gray, L., Burgess, D., Copland, L., Langley, K., Gogineni, P., Paden, J.,
Leuschen, C., van As, D., Fausto, R., Joughin, I., and Smith, B.: Measuring
Height Change Around the Periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet With Radar
Altimetry, Front. Earth Sci., 7, 146, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00146,
2019.
Gregory, J. M. and Oerlemans, J.: Simulated future sea-level rise due to
glacier melt based on regionally and seasonally resolved temperature
changes, Nature, 391, 474–476, https://doi.org/10.1038/35119, 1998.
Guido, Z., McIntosh, J. C., Papuga, S. A., and Meixner, T.: Seasonal glacial
meltwater contributions to surface water in the Bolivian Andes: A case study
using environmental tracers, J. Hydrol. Reg. Stud., 8, 260–273,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2016.10.002, 2016.
Hawley, R. L., Shepherd, A., Cullen, R., Helm, V., and Wingham, D. J.:
Ice-sheet elevations from across-track processing of airborne
interferometric radar altimetry, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L22501,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL040416, 2009.
Hewitt, K.: The Karakoram Anomaly? Glacier Expansion and the “Elevation
Effect”, Karakoram Himalaya, Mt. Res. Dev., 25, 332–340,
https://doi.org/10.1659/0276-4741(2005)025[0332:TKAGEA]2.0.CO;2, 2005.
Hodgkins, G. A.: Streamflow changes in Alaska between the cool phase
(1947–1976) and the warm phase (1977–2006) of the Pacific Decadal
Oscillation: The influence of glaciers, Water Resour. Res., 45, W06502,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2008WR007575, 2009.
Huss, M.: Density assumptions for converting geodetic glacier volume change to mass change, The Cryosphere, 7, 877–887, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-877-2013, 2013.
Huss, M. and Hock, R.: Global-scale hydrological response to future glacier
mass loss, Nat. Clim. Change, 8, 135–140,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0049-x, 2018.
Immerzeel, W. W., Lutz, A. F., Andrade, M., Bahl, A., Biemans, H., Bolch,
T., Hyde, S., Brumby, S., Davies, B. J., Elmore, A. C., Emmer, A., Feng, M.,
Fernández, A., Haritashya, U., Kargel, J. S., Koppes, M., Kraaijenbrink,
P. D. A., Kulkarni, A. V., Mayewski, P. A., Nepal, S., Pacheco, P., Painter,
T. H., Pellicciotti, F., Rajaram, H., Rupper, S., Sinisalo, A., Shrestha, A.
B., Viviroli, D., Wada, Y., Xiao, C., Yao, T., and Baillie, J. E. M.:
Importance and vulnerability of the world's water towers, Nature, 577,
364–369, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1822-y, 2020.
Jacob, T., Wahr, J., Pfeffer, W. T., and Swenson, S.: Recent contributions of
glaciers and ice caps to sea level rise, Nature, 482, 514–518,
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10847, 2012.
Kääb, A., Berthier, E., Nuth, C., Gardelle, J., and Arnaud, Y.:
Contrasting patterns of early twenty-first-century glacier mass change in
the Himalayas, Nature, 488, 495–498,
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11324, 2012.
Kääb, A., Treichler, D., Nuth, C., and Berthier, E.: Brief Communication: Contending estimates of 2003–2008 glacier mass balance over the Pamir–Karakoram–Himalaya, The Cryosphere, 9, 557–564, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-557-2015, 2015.
King, O., Bhattacharya, A., Bhambri, R., and Bolch, T.: Glacial lakes
exacerbate Himalayan glacier mass loss, Sci. Rep., 9, 18145,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-53733-x, 2019.
Larsen, C. F., Burgess, E., Arendt, A. A., O'Neel, S., Johnson, A. J., and
Kienholz, C.: Surface melt dominates Alaska glacier mass balance, Geophys.
Res. Lett., 42, 5902–5908, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL064349, 2015.
Le Bris, R., Paul, F., Frey, H., and Bolch, T.: A new satellite-derived
glacier inventory for western Alaska, Ann. Glaciol., 52, 135–143,
https://doi.org/10.3189/172756411799096303, 2011.
Lehner, B., Verdin, K., and Jarvis, A.: HydroSHEDS technical documentation,
version 1.0, World Wildland Fund US, Washington, DC, 1–27, 2006.
Li, Z., Fang, H., Tian, L., Dai, Y., and Zong, J.: Changes in the glacier
extent and surface elevation in Xiongcaigangri region, Southern Karakoram
Mountains, China, Quat. Int., 371, 67–75,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.12.004, 2015.
Luthcke, S. B., Arendt, A. A., Rowlands, D. D., McCarthy, J. J., and Larsen,
C. F.: Recent glacier mass changes in the Gulf of Alaska region from GRACE
mascon solutions, J. Glaciol., 54, 767–777,
https://doi.org/10.3189/002214308787779933, 2008.
Luthcke, S. B., Sabaka, T. J., Loomis, B. D., Arendt, A. A., McCarthy, J. J.,
and Camp, J.: Antarctica, Greenland and Gulf of Alaska land-ice evolution
from an iterated GRACE global mascon solution, J. Glaciol., 59,
613–631, https://doi.org/10.3189/2013JoG12J147, 2013.
Maurer, J. M., Schaefer, J. M., Rupper, S., and Corley, A.: Acceleration of
ice loss across the Himalayas over the past 40 years, Sci. Adv., 5,
eaav7266, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav7266, 2019.
Maussion, F., Scherer, D., Mölg, T., Collier, E., Curio, J., and
Finkelnburg, R.: Precipitation Seasonality and Variability over the Tibetan
Plateau as Resolved by the High Asia Reanalysis, J. Clim., 27,
1910–1927, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00282.1, 2014.
McMillan, M., Shepherd, A., Sundal, A., Briggs, K., Muir, A., Ridout, A.,
Hogg, A., and Wingham, D.: Increased ice losses from Antarctica detected by
CryoSat-2, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 3899–3905,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL060111, 2014a.
McMillan, M., Shepherd, A., Gourmelen, N., Dehecq, A., Leeson, A., Ridout,
A., Flament, T., Hogg, A., Gilbert, L., Benham, T., Broeke, M. van den,
Dowdeswell, J. A., Fettweis, X., Noël, B., and Strozzi, T.: Rapid dynamic
activation of a marine-based Arctic ice cap, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41,
8902–8909, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL062255, 2014b.
Moholdt, G., Hagen, J. O., Eiken, T., and Schuler, T. V.: Geometric changes and mass balance of the Austfonna ice cap, Svalbard, The Cryosphere, 4, 21–34, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-4-21-2010, 2010a.
Moholdt, G., Nuth, C., Hagen, J. O., and Kohler, J.: Recent elevation changes
of Svalbard glaciers derived from repeat track ICESat altimetry, Remote
Sens. Environ., 114, 2756–2767,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2010.06.008, 2010b.
Neckel, N., Kropáček, J., Bolch, T., and Hochschild, V.: Glacier mass
changes on the Tibetan Plateau 2003–2009 derived from ICESat laser
altimetry measurements, Environ. Res. Lett., 9, 014009,
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/1/014009, 2014.
Nilsson, J., Sandberg Sørensen, L., Barletta, V. R., and Forsberg, R.: Mass changes in Arctic ice caps and glaciers: implications of regionalizing elevation changes, The Cryosphere, 9, 139–150, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-139-2015, 2015.
Papineau, J. M.: Wintertime temperature anomalies in Alaska correlated with
ENSO and PDO, Int. J. Climatol., 21, 1577–1592,
https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.686, 2001.
Pfeffer, W. T., Arendt, A. A., Bliss, A., Bolch, T., Cogley, J. G., Gardner,
A. S., Hagen, J.-O., Hock, R., Kaser, G., Kienholz, C., Miles, E. S.,
Moholdt, G., Mölg, N., Paul, F., Radić, V., Rastner, P., Raup, B.
H., Rich, J., Sharp, M. J., and Consortium, T. R.: The Randolph Glacier
Inventory: a globally complete inventory of glaciers, J. Glaciol., 60,
537–552, https://doi.org/10.3189/2014JoG13J176, 2014.
Pohl, E., Gloaguen, R., and Seiler, R.: Remote Sensing-Based Assessment of
the Variability of Winter and Summer Precipitation in the Pamirs and Their
Effects on Hydrology and Hazards Using Harmonic Time Series Analysis, Remote
Sens., 7, 9727–9752, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs70809727, 2015.
Pritchard, H. D.: Asia's shrinking glaciers protect large populations from
drought stress, Nature, 569, 649–654,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1240-1, 2019.
Quincey, D. J., Richardson, S. D., Luckman, A., Lucas, R. M., Reynolds, J.
M., Hambrey, M. J., and Glasser, N. F.: Early recognition of glacial lake
hazards in the Himalaya using remote sensing datasets, Glob. Planet. Change,
56, 137–152, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2006.07.013, 2007.
Ragettli, S., Immerzeel, W. W., and Pellicciotti, F.: Contrasting climate
change impact on river flows from high-altitude catchments in the Himalayan
and Andes Mountains, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 113, 9222–9227,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1606526113, 2016.
RAGMAC: ACS WG on Regional Assessments of Glacier Mass Change, available at:
https://cryosphericsciences.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IACS_WG_RAGMAC_Proposal_2019.pdf (last access: 20 February 2021), 2019.
Rasul, G. and Molden, D.: The Global Social and Economic Consequences of
Mountain Cryospheric Change, Front. Environ. Sci., 7, 91,
https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2019.00091, 2019.
RGI Consortium: Randolph Glacier Inventory – A Dataset of Global Glacier
Outlines: Version 6.0, Technical Report, Global Land Ice Measurements from
Space, Digit. Media, https://doi.org/10.7265/N5-RGI-60, 2017.
Rounce, D. R., Hock, R., and Shean, D. E.: Glacier Mass Change in High
Mountain Asia Through 2100 Using the Open-Source Python Glacier Evolution
Model (PyGEM), Front. Earth Sci., 7, 331,
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00331, 2020.
Sakai, A. and Fujita, K.: Contrasting glacier responses to recent climate
change in high-mountain Asia, Sci. Rep., 7, 13717,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14256-5, 2017.
Salerno, F., Guyennon, N., Thakuri, S., Viviano, G., Romano, E., Vuillermoz, E., Cristofanelli, P., Stocchi, P., Agrillo, G., Ma, Y., and Tartari, G.: Weak precipitation, warm winters and springs impact glaciers of south slopes of Mt. Everest (central Himalaya) in the last 2 decades (1994–2013), The Cryosphere, 9, 1229–1247, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1229-2015, 2015.
Sasgen, I., Klemann, V., and Martinec, Z.: Towards the inversion of GRACE
gravity fields for present-day ice-mass changes and glacial-isostatic
adjustment in North America and Greenland, J. Geodyn., 59–60, 49–63,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jog.2012.03.004, 2012.
Scagliola, M., Fornari, M., Bouffard, J., and Parrinello, T.: The CryoSat
interferometer: End-to-end calibration and achievable performance, Adv.
Space Res., 62, 1516–1525, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2017.09.024,
2018.
Shean, D. E., Bhushan, S., Montesano, P., Rounce, D. R., Arendt, A., and
Osmanoglu, B.: A Systematic, Regional Assessment of High Mountain Asia
Glacier Mass Balance, Front. Earth Sci., 7, 363,
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00363, 2020.
Slater, T., Lawrence, I. R., Otosaka, I. N., Shepherd, A., Gourmelen, N., Jakob, L., Tepes, P., Gilbert, L., and Nienow, P.: Review article: Earth's ice imbalance, The Cryosphere, 15, 233–246, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-233-2021, 2021.
Smith, T. and Bookhagen, B.: Changes in seasonal snow water equivalent
distribution in High Mountain Asia (1987 to 2009), Sci. Adv., 4,
e1701550, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701550, 2018.
Trantow, T. and Herzfeld, U. C.: Spatiotemporal mapping of a large mountain
glacier from CryoSat-2 altimeter data: surface elevation and elevation
change of Bering Glacier during surge (2011–2014), Int. J. Remote Sens.,
37, 2962–2989, https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2016.1187318, 2016.
Treichler, D., Kääb, A., Salzmann, N., and Xu, C.-Y.: Recent glacier and lake changes in High Mountain Asia and their relation to precipitation changes, The Cryosphere, 13, 2977–3005, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2977-2019, 2019.
Wagnon, P., Vincent, C., Arnaud, Y., Berthier, E., Vuillermoz, E., Gruber, S., Ménégoz, M., Gilbert, A., Dumont, M., Shea, J. M., Stumm, D., and Pokhrel, B. K.: Seasonal and annual mass balances of Mera and Pokalde glaciers (Nepal Himalaya) since 2007, The Cryosphere, 7, 1769–1786, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1769-2013, 2013.
WCRP Global Sea Level Budget Group: Global sea-level budget 1993–present, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 1551–1590, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1551-2018, 2018.
Wendler, G., Gordon, T., and Stuefer, M.: On the Precipitation and
Precipitation Change in Alaska, Atmosphere, 8, 253,
https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos8120253, 2017.
Wingham, D., Francis, C. R., Baker, S., Bouzinac, C., Brockley, D., Cullen,
R., Chateau-Thierry, P., Laxon, S. W., Mallow, U., Mavrocordatos, C.,
Phalippou, L., Ratier, G., Rey, L., Rostan, F., Viau, P., and Wallis, D.:
CryoSat: A mission to determine the fluctuations in Earth's land and marine
ice fields, Adv. Space Res., 37, 841–871,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2005.07.027, 2006.
Wouters, B., Gardner, A. S., and Moholdt, G.: Global Glacier Mass Loss During
the GRACE Satellite Mission (2002–2016), Front. Earth Sci., 7, 96,
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00096, 2019.
Yao, T., Thompson, L., Yang, W., Yu, W., Gao, Y., Guo, X., Yang, X., Duan,
K., Zhao, H., Xu, B., Pu, J., Lu, A., Xiang, Y., Kattel, D. B., and Joswiak,
D.: Different glacier status with atmospheric circulations in Tibetan
Plateau and surroundings, Nat. Clim. Change, 2, 663–667,
https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1580, 2012.
Zemp, M., Huss, M., Thibert, E., Eckert, N., McNabb, R., Huber, J.,
Barandun, M., Machguth, H., Nussbaumer, S. U., Gärtner-Roer, I.,
Thomson, L., Paul, F., Maussion, F., Kutuzov, S., and Cogley, J. G.: Global
glacier mass changes and their contributions to sea-level rise from 1961 to
2016, Nature, 568, 382–386,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1071-0, 2019.
Zheng, W., Pritchard, M. E., Willis, M. J., Tepes, P., Gourmelen, N.,
Benham, T. J., and Dowdeswell, J. A.: Accelerating glacier mass loss on Franz
Josef Land, Russian Arctic, Remote Sens. Environ., 211, 357–375,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.04.004, 2018.
Short summary
Glaciers and ice caps are currently the largest contributor to sea level rise. Global monitoring of these regions is a challenging task, and significant differences remain between current estimates. This study looks at glacier changes in High Mountain Asia and the Gulf of Alaska using a new technique, which for the first time makes the use of satellite radar altimetry for mapping ice mass loss over mountain glacier regions possible.
Glaciers and ice caps are currently the largest contributor to sea level rise. Global monitoring...