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.
Research article
| 
14 Apr 2021
Research article |
| 14 Apr 2021
| 14 Apr 2021
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.
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.
Wei Wei, Donald D. Blankenship, Jamin S. Greenbaum, Noel Gourmelen, Christine F. Dow, Thomas G. Richter, Chad A. Greene, Duncan A. Young, SangHoon Lee, Tae-Wan Kim, Won Sang Lee, and Karen M. Assmann
The Cryosphere, 14, 1399–1408, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1399-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1399-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Getz Ice Shelf is the largest meltwater source from Antarctica of the Southern Ocean. This study compares the relative importance of the meltwater production of Getz from both ocean and subglacial sources. We show that basal melt rates are elevated where bathymetric troughs provide pathways for warm Circumpolar Deep Water to enter the Getz Ice Shelf cavity. In particular, we find that subshelf melting is enhanced where subglacially discharged fresh water flows across the grounding line.
David A. Lilien, Ian Joughin, Benjamin Smith, and Noel Gourmelen
The Cryosphere, 13, 2817–2834, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2817-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2817-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We used a number of computer simulations to understand the recent retreat of a rapidly changing group of glaciers in West Antarctica. We found that significant melt underneath the floating extensions of the glaciers, driven by relatively warm ocean water at depth, was likely needed to cause the large retreat that has been observed. If melt continues around current rates, retreat is likely to continue through the coming century and extend beyond the present-day drainage area of these glaciers.
Emilio Chuvieco, Joshua Lizundia-Loiola, Maria Lucrecia Pettinari, Ruben Ramo, Marc Padilla, Kevin Tansey, Florent Mouillot, Pierre Laurent, Thomas Storm, Angelika Heil, and Stephen Plummer
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 2015–2031, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-2015-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-2015-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We present a new global burned area product, generated from MODIS information and thermal anomalies data, providing the highest spatial resolution (approx. 250 m) global product to date. The dataset comprises the 2001–2016 time series of the MODIS archive, and includes two types of BA products: monthly full-resolution continental tiles and biweekly global grid files at a degraded resolution of 0.25 °, supplemented with several auxiliary variables useful for different applications.
Frazer D. W. Christie, Robert G. Bingham, Noel Gourmelen, Eric J. Steig, Rosie R. Bisset, Hamish D. Pritchard, Kate Snow, and Simon F. B. Tett
The Cryosphere, 12, 2461–2479, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2461-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2461-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
With a focus on the hitherto little-studied Marie Byrd Land coastline linking Antarctica's more comprehensively studied Amundsen and Ross Sea Embayments, this paper uses both satellite remote sensing (Landsat, ASTER, ICESat, and CryoSat2) and climate and ocean records (i.e. ERA-Interim, Met Office EN4 data) to examine links between ice recession, inter-decadal atmosphere-ocean forcing and other influences acting upon the Pacific-facing coastline of West Antarctica.
Peter Kuipers Munneke, Daniel McGrath, Brooke Medley, Adrian Luckman, Suzanne Bevan, Bernd Kulessa, Daniela Jansen, Adam Booth, Paul Smeets, Bryn Hubbard, David Ashmore, Michiel Van den Broeke, Heidi Sevestre, Konrad Steffen, Andrew Shepherd, and Noel Gourmelen
The Cryosphere, 11, 2411–2426, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2411-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2411-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
How much snow falls on the Larsen C ice shelf? This is a relevant question, because this ice shelf might collapse sometime this century. To know if and when this could happen, we found out how much snow falls on its surface. This was difficult, because there are only very few measurements. Here, we used data from automatic weather stations, sled-pulled radars, and a climate model to find that melting the annual snowfall produces about 20 cm of water in the NE and over 70 cm in the SW.
Benjamin E. Smith, Noel Gourmelen, Alexander Huth, and Ian Joughin
The Cryosphere, 11, 451–467, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-451-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-451-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper we investigate elevation changes of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, one of the main sources of excess ice discharge into the ocean. We find that in early 2013, four subglacial lakes separated by 100 km drained suddenly, discharging more than 3 km3 of water under the fastest part of the glacier in less than 6 months. Concurrent ice-speed measurements show only minor changes, suggesting that ice dynamics are not strongly sensitive to changes in water flow.
J. Kropáček, N. Neckel, B. Tyrna, N. Holzer, A. Hovden, N. Gourmelen, C. Schneider, M. Buchroithner, and V. Hochschild
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 2425–2437, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-2425-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-2425-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
The supraglacial lake basin was mapped by DGPS and the SFM approach from terrestrial photographs. The maximum filling capacity of the lake was estimated, with a maximum discharge of 77.8 m3/s, calculated using an empirical relation. The flooded area in the valley was delineated by employing a raster-based hydraulic model. A coincidence of the GLOF events with high values of cumulative above-zero temperature and precipitation calculated from the HAR data set was revealed.
J. J. Fürst, G. Durand, F. Gillet-Chaulet, N. Merino, L. Tavard, J. Mouginot, N. Gourmelen, and O. Gagliardini
The Cryosphere, 9, 1427–1443, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1427-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1427-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
We present a comprehensive high-resolution assimilation of Antarctic surface velocities with a flow model. The inferred velocities are in very good agreement with observations, even when compared to recent studies on individual shelves. This quality allows to identify a pattern in the velocity mismatch that points at pinning points not present in the input geometry. We identify seven potential pinning points around Antarctica, for now uncharted, providing prominent resistance to the ice flow.
P. Ciais, A. J. Dolman, A. Bombelli, R. Duren, A. Peregon, P. J. Rayner, C. Miller, N. Gobron, G. Kinderman, G. Marland, N. Gruber, F. Chevallier, R. J. Andres, G. Balsamo, L. Bopp, F.-M. Bréon, G. Broquet, R. Dargaville, T. J. Battin, A. Borges, H. Bovensmann, M. Buchwitz, J. Butler, J. G. Canadell, R. B. Cook, R. DeFries, R. Engelen, K. R. Gurney, C. Heinze, M. Heimann, A. Held, M. Henry, B. Law, S. Luyssaert, J. Miller, T. Moriyama, C. Moulin, R. B. Myneni, C. Nussli, M. Obersteiner, D. Ojima, Y. Pan, J.-D. Paris, S. L. Piao, B. Poulter, S. Plummer, S. Quegan, P. Raymond, M. Reichstein, L. Rivier, C. Sabine, D. Schimel, O. Tarasova, R. Valentini, R. Wang, G. van der Werf, D. Wickland, M. Williams, and C. Zehner
Biogeosciences, 11, 3547–3602, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-3547-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-3547-2014, 2014
Related subject area
Discipline: Glaciers | Subject: Alpine Glaciers
Mapping and characterization of avalanches on mountain glaciers with Sentinel-1 satellite imagery
Brief communication: Recent estimates of glacier mass loss for western North America from laser altimetry
Unprecedented Twenty-First Century Glacier Loss on Mt. Hood, Oregon, U.S.A.
The Aneto glacier's (Central Pyrenees) evolution from 1981 to 2022: ice loss observed from historic aerial image photogrammetry and remote sensing techniques
Modelling point mass balance for the glaciers of the Central European Alps using machine learning techniques
Consistent histories of anthropogenic western European air pollution preserved in different Alpine ice cores
Brief communication: Non-linear sensitivity of glacier mass balance to climate attested by temperature-index models
Halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry
Land- to lake-terminating transition triggers dynamic thinning of a Bhutanese glacier
Brief communication: A framework to classify glaciers for water resource evaluation and management in the Southern Andes
Strong acceleration of glacier area loss in the Greater Caucasus between 2000 and 2020
Ice volume and basal topography estimation using geostatistical methods and ground-penetrating radar measurements: application to the Tsanfleuron and Scex Rouge glaciers, Swiss Alps
Significant mass loss in the accumulation area of the Adamello glacier indicated by the chronology of a 46 m ice core
Brief communication: Do 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 °C matter for the future evolution of Alpine glaciers?
A new automatic approach for extracting glacier centerlines based on Euclidean allocation
Crystallographic analysis of temperate ice on Rhonegletscher, Swiss Alps
Debris cover and the thinning of Kennicott Glacier, Alaska: in situ measurements, automated ice cliff delineation and distributed melt estimates
Small-scale spatial variability in bare-ice reflectance at Jamtalferner, Austria
Numerical modeling of the dynamics of the Mer de Glace glacier, French Alps: comparison with past observations and forecasting of near-future evolution
Monitoring the seasonal changes of an englacial conduit network using repeated ground-penetrating radar measurements
Possible biases in scaling-based estimates of glacier change: a case study in the Himalaya
Spatial and temporal variations in glacier aerodynamic surface roughness during the melting season, as estimated at the August-one ice cap, Qilian mountains, China
Strong changes in englacial temperatures despite insignificant changes in ice thickness at Dôme du Goûter glacier (Mont Blanc area)
Supra-glacial debris cover changes in the Greater Caucasus from 1986 to 2014
Glacier thickness estimations of alpine glaciers using data and modeling constraints
Unravelling the evolution of Zmuttgletscher and its debris cover since the end of the Little Ice Age
Modelling the future evolution of glaciers in the European Alps under the EURO-CORDEX RCM ensemble
Robust uncertainty assessment of the spatio-temporal transferability of glacier mass and energy balance models
Impacts of topographic shading on direct solar radiation for valley glaciers in complex topography
19th century glacier retreat in the Alps preceded the emergence of industrial black carbon deposition on high-alpine glaciers
Iron oxides in the cryoconite of glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau: abundance, speciation and implications
Numerical reconstructions of the flow and basal conditions of the Rhine glacier, European Central Alps, at the Last Glacial Maximum
Marin Kneib, Amaury Dehecq, Fanny Brun, Fatima Karbou, Laurane Charrier, Silvan Leinss, Patrick Wagnon, and Fabien Maussion
The Cryosphere, 18, 2809–2830, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2809-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2809-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Avalanches are important for the mass balance of mountain glaciers, but few data exist on where and when they occur and which glaciers they affect the most. We developed an approach to map avalanches over large glaciated areas and long periods of time using satellite radar data. The application of this method to various regions in the Alps and High Mountain Asia reveals the variability of avalanches on these glaciers and provides key data to better represent these processes in glacier models.
Brian Menounos, Alex Gardner, Caitlyn Florentine, and Andrew Fountain
The Cryosphere, 18, 889–894, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-889-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-889-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Glaciers in western North American outside of Alaska are often overlooked in global studies because their potential to contribute to changes in sea level is small. Nonetheless, these glaciers represent important sources of freshwater, especially during times of drought. We show that these glaciers lost mass at a rate of about 12 Gt yr-1 for about the period 2013–2021; the rate of mass loss over the period 2018–2022 was similar.
Nicolas Bakken-French, Stephen J. Boyer, W. Clay Southworth, Megan Thayne, Dylan H. Rood, and Anders E. Carlson
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-251, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-251, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Repeat photography and field mapping find that glaciers on Mt. Hood, Oregon, U.S.A. have lost about 40 % of their area in the first two decades of the 21st century. This unprecedented retreat is under simulated by glacier models, implying recent extreme heatwaves, snow droughts and wildfire particulates may be hastening glacier recession beyond what is simulated from monotonic warming. These glacier models underly future water resource plans, with implications for down-stream communities.
Ixeia Vidaller, Eñaut Izagirre, Luis Mariano del Rio, Esteban Alonso-González, Francisco Rojas-Heredia, Enrique Serrano, Ana Moreno, Juan Ignacio López-Moreno, and Jesús Revuelto
The Cryosphere, 17, 3177–3192, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-3177-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-3177-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The Aneto glacier, the largest glacier in the Pyrenees, has shown continuous surface and ice thickness losses in the last decades. In this study, we examine changes in its surface and ice thickness for 1981–2022 and the remaining ice thickness in 2020. During these 41 years, the glacier has shrunk by 64.7 %, and the ice thickness has decreased by 30.5 m on average. The mean ice thickness in 2022 was 11.9 m, compared to 32.9 m in 1981. The results highlight the critical situation of the glacier.
Ritu Anilkumar, Rishikesh Bharti, Dibyajyoti Chutia, and Shiv Prasad Aggarwal
The Cryosphere, 17, 2811–2828, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2811-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2811-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Our analysis demonstrates the capability of machine learning models in estimating glacier mass balance in terms of performance metrics and dataset availability. Feature importance analysis suggests that ablation features are significant. This is in agreement with the predominantly negative mass balance observations. We show that ensemble tree models typically depict the best performance. However, neural network models are preferable for biased inputs and kernel-based models for smaller datasets.
Anja Eichler, Michel Legrand, Theo M. Jenk, Susanne Preunkert, Camilla Andersson, Sabine Eckhardt, Magnuz Engardt, Andreas Plach, and Margit Schwikowski
The Cryosphere, 17, 2119–2137, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2119-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2119-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We investigate how a 250-year history of the emission of air pollutants (major inorganic aerosol constituents, black carbon, and trace species) is preserved in ice cores from four sites in the European Alps. The observed uniform timing in species-dependent longer-term concentration changes reveals that the different ice-core records provide a consistent, spatially representative signal of the pollution history from western European countries.
Christian Vincent and Emmanuel Thibert
The Cryosphere, 17, 1989–1995, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1989-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1989-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Temperature-index models have been widely used for glacier mass projections in the future. The ability of these models to capture non-linear responses of glacier mass balance (MB) to high deviations in air temperature and solid precipitation has recently been questioned by mass balance simulations employing advanced machine-learning techniques. Here, we confirmed that temperature-index models are capable of detecting non-linear responses of glacier MB to temperature and precipitation changes.
Erik Schytt Mannerfelt, Amaury Dehecq, Romain Hugonnet, Elias Hodel, Matthias Huss, Andreas Bauder, and Daniel Farinotti
The Cryosphere, 16, 3249–3268, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3249-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3249-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
How glaciers have responded to climate change over the last 20 years is well-known, but earlier data are much more scarce. We change this in Switzerland by using 22 000 photographs taken from mountain tops between the world wars and find a halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931. This was done through new automated processing techniques that we created. The data are interesting for more than just glaciers, such as mapping forest changes, landslides, and human impacts on the terrain.
Yota Sato, Koji Fujita, Hiroshi Inoue, Akiko Sakai, and Karma
The Cryosphere, 16, 2643–2654, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2643-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2643-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We investigate fluctuations in Bhutanese lake-terminating glaciers focusing on the dynamics change before and after proglacial lake formation at Thorthormi Glacier (TG) based on photogrammetry, satellite, and GPS surveys. The thinning rate of TG became double compared to before proglacial lake formation, and the flow velocity has also sped up considerably. Those changes would be due to the reduction in longitudinal ice compression by the detachment of the glacier terminus from the end moraine.
Nicole Schaffer and Shelley MacDonell
The Cryosphere, 16, 1779–1791, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1779-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1779-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Over the last 2 decades the importance of Andean glaciers, particularly as water resources, has been recognized in both scientific literature and the public sphere. This has led to the inclusion of glaciers in environmental impact assessment and the development of glacier protection laws. We propose three categories that group glaciers based on their environmental sensitivity to hopefully help facilitate the effective application of these measures and evaluation of water resources in general.
Levan G. Tielidze, Gennady A. Nosenko, Tatiana E. Khromova, and Frank Paul
The Cryosphere, 16, 489–504, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-489-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-489-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The new Caucasus glacier inventory derived from manual delineation of glacier outlines based on medium-resolution (Landsat, Sentinel) and high-resolution (SPOT) satellite imagery shows the accelerated glacier area loss over the last 2 decades (2000–2020). This new glacier inventory will improve our understanding of climate change impacts at a regional scale and support related modelling studies by providing high-quality validation data.
Alexis Neven, Valentin Dall'Alba, Przemysław Juda, Julien Straubhaar, and Philippe Renard
The Cryosphere, 15, 5169–5186, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5169-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5169-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We present and compare different geostatistical methods for underglacial bedrock interpolation. Variogram-based interpolations are compared with a multipoint statistics approach on both test cases and real glaciers. Using the modeled bedrock, the ice volume for the Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron glaciers (Swiss Alps) was estimated to be 113.9 ± 1.6 million cubic meters. Complex karstic geomorphological features are reproduced and can be used to improve the precision of underglacial flow estimation.
Daniela Festi, Margit Schwikowski, Valter Maggi, Klaus Oeggl, and Theo Manuel Jenk
The Cryosphere, 15, 4135–4143, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4135-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4135-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
In our study we dated a 46 m deep ice core retrieved from the Adamello glacier (Central Italian Alps). We obtained a timescale combining the results of radionuclides 210Pb and 137Cs with annual layer counting derived from pollen and refractory black carbon concentrations. Our results indicate that the surface of the glacier is older than the drilling date of 2016 by about 20 years, therefore revealing that the glacier is at high risk of collapsing under current climate warming conditions.
Loris Compagno, Sarah Eggs, Matthias Huss, Harry Zekollari, and Daniel Farinotti
The Cryosphere, 15, 2593–2599, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2593-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2593-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Recently, discussions have focused on the difference in limiting the increase in global average temperatures to below 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 °C compared to preindustrial levels. Here, we assess the impacts that such different scenarios would have on both the future evolution of glaciers in the European Alps and the water resources they provide. Our results show that the different temperature targets have important implications for the changes predicted until 2100.
Dahong Zhang, Xiaojun Yao, Hongyu Duan, Shiyin Liu, Wanqin Guo, Meiping Sun, and Dazhi Li
The Cryosphere, 15, 1955–1973, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1955-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1955-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Glacier centerlines are crucial input for many glaciological applications. We propose a new algorithm to derive glacier centerlines and implement the corresponding program in Python language. Application of this method to 48 571 glaciers in the second Chinese glacier inventory automatically yielded the corresponding glacier centerlines with an average computing time of 20.96 s, a success rate of 100 % and a comprehensive accuracy of 94.34 %.
Sebastian Hellmann, Johanna Kerch, Ilka Weikusat, Andreas Bauder, Melchior Grab, Guillaume Jouvet, Margit Schwikowski, and Hansruedi Maurer
The Cryosphere, 15, 677–694, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-677-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-677-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We analyse the orientation of ice crystals in an Alpine glacier and compare this orientation with the ice flow direction. We found that the crystals orient in the direction of the largest stress which is in the flow direction in the upper parts of the glacier and in the vertical direction for deeper zones of the glacier. The grains cluster around this maximum stress direction, in particular four-point maxima, most likely as a result of recrystallisation under relatively warm conditions.
Leif S. Anderson, William H. Armstrong, Robert S. Anderson, and Pascal Buri
The Cryosphere, 15, 265–282, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-265-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-265-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Many glaciers are thinning rapidly beneath debris cover (loose rock) that reduces melt, including Kennicott Glacier in Alaska. This contradiction has been explained by melt hotspots, such as ice cliffs, scattered within the debris cover. However, at Kennicott Glacier declining ice flow explains the rapid thinning. Through this study, Kennicott Glacier is now the first glacier in Alaska, and the largest glacier globally, where melt across its debris-covered tongue has been rigorously quantified.
Lea Hartl, Lucia Felbauer, Gabriele Schwaizer, and Andrea Fischer
The Cryosphere, 14, 4063–4081, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4063-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4063-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
When glaciers become snow-free in summer, darker glacier ice is exposed. The ice surface is darker than snow and absorbs more radiation, which increases ice melt. We measured how much radiation is reflected at different wavelengths in the ablation zone of Jamtalferner, Austria. Due to impurities and water on the ice surface there are large variations in reflectance. Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 surface reflectance products do not capture the full range of reflectance found on the glacier.
Vincent Peyaud, Coline Bouchayer, Olivier Gagliardini, Christian Vincent, Fabien Gillet-Chaulet, Delphine Six, and Olivier Laarman
The Cryosphere, 14, 3979–3994, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3979-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3979-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Alpine glaciers are retreating at an accelerating rate in a warming climate. Numerical models allow us to study and anticipate these changes, but the performance of a model is difficult to evaluate. So we compared an ice flow model with the long dataset of observations obtained between 1979 and 2015 on Mer de Glace (Mont Blanc area). The model accurately reconstructs the past evolution of the glacier. We simulate the future evolution of Mer de Glace; it could retreat by 2 to 6 km by 2050.
Gregory Church, Melchior Grab, Cédric Schmelzbach, Andreas Bauder, and Hansruedi Maurer
The Cryosphere, 14, 3269–3286, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3269-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3269-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
In this field study, we repeated ground-penetrating radar measurements over an active englacial channel network that transports meltwater through the glacier. We successfully imaged the englacial meltwater pathway and were able to delimitate the channel's shape. Meltwater from the glacier can impact the glacier's dynamics if it reaches the ice–bed interface, and therefore monitoring these englacial drainage networks is important to understand how these networks behave throughout a season.
Argha Banerjee, Disha Patil, and Ajinkya Jadhav
The Cryosphere, 14, 3235–3247, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3235-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3235-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Simple models of glacier dynamics based on volume–area scaling underestimate climate sensitivity and response time of glaciers. Consequently, they may predict a faster response and a smaller long-term glacier loss. These biases in scaling models are established theoretically and are analysed in detail by simulating the step response of a set of 703 Himalayan glaciers separately by three different models: a scaling model, a 2-D shallow-ice approximation model, and a linear-response model.
Junfeng Liu, Rensheng Chen, and Chuntan Han
The Cryosphere, 14, 967–984, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-967-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-967-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Glacier surface roughness during melting season was observed by manual and automatic photogrammetry. Surface roughness was larger at the snow and ice transition zone than in fully snow- or ice-covered areas. Persistent snowfall and rainfall both reduce surface roughness. High or rising turbulent heat as a component of surface energy balance tended to produce a smooth ice surface; low or decreasing turbulent heat tended to produce a rougher surface.
Christian Vincent, Adrien Gilbert, Bruno Jourdain, Luc Piard, Patrick Ginot, Vladimir Mikhalenko, Philippe Possenti, Emmanuel Le Meur, Olivier Laarman, and Delphine Six
The Cryosphere, 14, 925–934, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-925-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-925-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
We observed very low glacier thickness changes over the last decades at very-high-elevation glaciated areas on Mont Blanc. Conversely, measurements performed in deep boreholes since 1994 reveal strong changes in englacial temperature reaching 1.5 °C at a depth of 50 m. We conclude that at such very high elevations, current changes in climate do not lead to visible changes in glacier thickness but cause invisible changes within the glacier in terms of englacial temperatures.
Levan G. Tielidze, Tobias Bolch, Roger D. Wheate, Stanislav S. Kutuzov, Ivan I. Lavrentiev, and Michael Zemp
The Cryosphere, 14, 585–598, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-585-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-585-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
We present data of supra-glacial debris cover for 659 glaciers across the Greater Caucasus based on satellite images from the years 1986, 2000 and 2014. We combined semi-automated methods for mapping the clean ice with manual digitization of debris-covered glacier parts and calculated supra-glacial debris-covered area as the residual between these two maps. The distribution of the supra-glacial debris cover differs between northern and southern and between western, central and eastern Caucasus.
Lisbeth Langhammer, Melchior Grab, Andreas Bauder, and Hansruedi Maurer
The Cryosphere, 13, 2189–2202, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2189-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2189-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We have developed a novel procedure for glacier thickness estimations that combines traditional glaciological modeling constraints with ground-truth data, for example, those obtained with ground-penetrating radar (GPR) measurements. This procedure is very useful for determining ice volume when only limited data are available. Furthermore, we outline a strategy for acquiring GPR data on glaciers, such that the cost/benefit ratio is optimized.
Nico Mölg, Tobias Bolch, Andrea Walter, and Andreas Vieli
The Cryosphere, 13, 1889–1909, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1889-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1889-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Debris can partly protect glaciers from melting. But many debris-covered glaciers change similar to debris-free glaciers. To better understand the debris influence we investigated 150 years of evolution of Zmutt Glacier in Switzerland. We found an increase in debris extent over time and a link to glacier flow velocity changes. We also found an influence of debris on the melt locally, but only a small volume change reduction over the whole glacier, also because of the influence of ice cliffs.
Harry Zekollari, Matthias Huss, and Daniel Farinotti
The Cryosphere, 13, 1125–1146, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1125-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1125-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Glaciers in the European Alps play an important role in the hydrological cycle, act as a source for hydroelectricity and have a large touristic importance. We model the future evolution of all glaciers in the Alps with a novel model that combines both ice flow and melt processes. We find that under a limited warming scenario about one-third of the present-day ice volume will still be present by the end of the century, while under strong warming more than 90 % of the volume will be lost by 2100.
Tobias Zolles, Fabien Maussion, Stephan Peter Galos, Wolfgang Gurgiser, and Lindsey Nicholson
The Cryosphere, 13, 469–489, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-469-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-469-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
A mass and energy balance model was subjected to sensitivity and uncertainty analysis on two different Alpine glaciers. The global sensitivity analysis allowed for a mass balance measurement independent assessment of the model sensitivity and functioned as a reduction of the model free parameter space. A novel approach of a multi-objective optimization estimates the uncertainty of the simulated mass balance and the energy fluxes. The final model uncertainty is up to 1300 kg m−3 per year.
Matthew Olson and Summer Rupper
The Cryosphere, 13, 29–40, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-29-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-29-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Solar radiation is the largest energy input for most alpine glaciers. However, many models oversimplify the influence of topographic shading. Also, no systematic studies have explored the variable impact of shading on glacier ice. We find that shading can significantly impact modeled solar radiation, particularly at low elevations, at high latitudes, and for glaciers with a north/south orientation. Excluding the effects of shading will overestimate modeled solar radiation for alpine glaciers.
Michael Sigl, Nerilie J. Abram, Jacopo Gabrieli, Theo M. Jenk, Dimitri Osmont, and Margit Schwikowski
The Cryosphere, 12, 3311–3331, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3311-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3311-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
The fast retreat of Alpine glaciers since the mid-19th century documented in photographs is used as a symbol for the human impact on global climate, yet the key driving forces remain elusive. Here we argue that not industrial soot but volcanic eruptions were responsible for an apparently accelerated deglaciation starting in the 1850s. Our findings support a negligible role of human activity in forcing glacier recession at the end of the Little Ice Age, highlighting the role of natural drivers.
Zhiyuan Cong, Shaopeng Gao, Wancang Zhao, Xin Wang, Guangming Wu, Yulan Zhang, Shichang Kang, Yongqin Liu, and Junfeng Ji
The Cryosphere, 12, 3177–3186, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3177-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3177-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Cryoconites from glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding area were studied for iron oxides. We found that goethite is the predominant iron oxide form. Using the abundance, speciation and optical properties of iron oxides, the total light absorption was quantitatively attributed to goethite, hematite, black carbon and organic matter. Such findings are essential to understand the relative significance of anthropogenic and natural impacts.
Denis Cohen, Fabien Gillet-Chaulet, Wilfried Haeberli, Horst Machguth, and Urs H. Fischer
The Cryosphere, 12, 2515–2544, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2515-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2515-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
As part of an integrative study about the safety of repositories for radioactive waste under ice age conditions in Switzerland, we modeled the flow of ice of the Rhine glacier at the Last Glacial Maximum to determine conditions at the ice–bed interface. Results indicate that portions of the ice lobes were at the melting temperature and ice was sliding, two conditions necessary for erosion by glacier. Conditions at the bed of the ice lobes were affected by climate and also by topography.
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...
