The Cryosphere
The Cryosphere
TC
Articles | Volume 18, issue 8
Articles | Volume 18, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3591-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3591-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 18, issue 8
Research article
 | 
15 Aug 2024
Research article |  | 15 Aug 2024

Arctic glacier snowline altitudes rise 150 m over the last 4 decades

Laura J. Larocca, James M. Lea, Michael P. Erb, Nicholas P. McKay, Megan Phillips, Kara A. Lamantia, and Darrell S. Kaufman

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3591-2024-supplement

Data sets

Snowline altitudes and shapefiles for 269 glaciers, Pan-Arctic, 1984-2022 Laura Larocca https://doi.org/10.18739/A2ZS2KF5T

Randolph Glacier Inventory - A Dataset of Global Glacier Outlines, Version 6 RGI Consortium https://doi.org/10.7265/4m1f-gd79

ERA5-Land hourly data from 1950 to present J. Muñoz-Sabater https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.e2161bac

ERA5-Land monthly averaged data from 1950 to present J. Muñoz-Sabater https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.68d2bb30

ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003 NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team https://doi.org/10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003

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Short summary
Here we present summer snowline altitude (SLA) time series for 269 Arctic glaciers. Between 1984 and 2022, SLAs rose ∼ 150 m, equating to a ∼ 127 m shift per 1 °C of summer warming. SLA is most strongly correlated with annual temperature variables, highlighting their dual effect on ablation and accumulation processes. We show that SLAs are rising fastest on low-elevation glaciers and that > 50 % of the studied glaciers could have SLAs that exceed the maximum ice elevation by 2100.
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