Articles | Volume 19, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1897-2025
© Author(s) 2025. 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-19-1897-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
19 May 2025
Research article |
| 19 May 2025
| 19 May 2025
An unseasonal atmospheric river drives anomalous summer snow accumulation on glaciers of the subtropical Andes
Centro de Estudios Científicos, Valdivia, Chile
Sebastián Cisternas
School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Maximiliano Viale
Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales CCT-CONICET, Mendoza, Argentina
Pablo Paredes
MSc. Program in Water Resources, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile
Deniz Bozkurt
Departamento de Meteorología, Universidad de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile
Centro de Ciencia del Clima y Resiliencia (CR)2, Santiago, Chile
Center for Oceanographic Research COPAS COASTAL, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile
Nicolás García-Lee
Centro de Estudios Científicos, Valdivia, Chile
MSc. Program in Water Resources, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile
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Nicolás García-Lee, Claudio Bravo, Álvaro Gónzalez-Reyes, and Piero Mardones
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 1137–1151, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1137-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1137-2024, 2024
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Thomas E. Shaw, Wei Yang, Álvaro Ayala, Claudio Bravo, Chuanxi Zhao, and Francesca Pellicciotti
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Near surface air temperature (Ta) is important for simulating the melting of glaciers, though its variability in space and time on mountain glaciers is still poorly understood. We combine new Ta observations on glacier in Tibet with several glacier datasets around the world to explore the applicability of an existing method to estimate glacier Ta based upon glacier flow distance. We make a first step at generalising a method and highlight the remaining unknowns for this field of research.
Álvaro González-Reyes, Claudio Bravo, Mathias Vuille, Martin Jacques-Coper, Maisa Rojas, Esteban Sagredo, and James McPhee
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The "Little Ice Age" (LIA), has long been recognized as the last period when mountain glaciers recorded extensive growth intervals. In the Mediterranean Andes (MA; 30º–37º S), the LIA has been poorly documented. Here, we performed an experiment using three GCMs to force a novel glaciological model. We simulated temporal variations of the ELA to evaluate the glacier response. We propose that Pacific SST variability was the main modulator of temporal changes of the ELA in the MA region during LIA.
Claudio Bravo, Thomas Loriaux, Andrés Rivera, and Ben W. Brock
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C. Bravo, M. Rojas, B. M. Anderson, A. N. Mackintosh, E. Sagredo, and P. I. Moreno
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Nicolás García-Lee, Claudio Bravo, Álvaro Gónzalez-Reyes, and Piero Mardones
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Alexis Caro, Thomas Condom, Antoine Rabatel, Nicolas Champollion, Nicolás García, and Freddy Saavedra
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Near surface air temperature (Ta) is important for simulating the melting of glaciers, though its variability in space and time on mountain glaciers is still poorly understood. We combine new Ta observations on glacier in Tibet with several glacier datasets around the world to explore the applicability of an existing method to estimate glacier Ta based upon glacier flow distance. We make a first step at generalising a method and highlight the remaining unknowns for this field of research.
Álvaro González-Reyes, Claudio Bravo, Mathias Vuille, Martin Jacques-Coper, Maisa Rojas, Esteban Sagredo, and James McPhee
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2019-37, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2019-37, 2019
Publication in CP not foreseen
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Claudio Bravo, Thomas Loriaux, Andrés Rivera, and Ben W. Brock
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 3249–3266, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3249-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3249-2017, 2017
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The Cryosphere, 11, 619–634, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-619-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-619-2017, 2017
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Our paper assesses the glacier mass change in the northern Patagonian Andes of Argentina and Chile, which is crucial to understanding how climate change is affecting them. We have found that between 2000 and 2012, glaciers in this region were slightly out of balance, with larger valley glaciers losing more mass than smaller mountain glaciers. The slightly negative mass balance of the northern Patagonian Andes contrasts with the highly negative mass balance of the Patagonian ice fields.
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Related subject area
Discipline: Glaciers | Subject: Climate Interactions
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The climate in Svalbard is undergoing amplified change compared to the global mean, which has a strong impact on the climatic mass balance of glaciers and the state of seasonal snow in land areas. In this study we analyze a coupled energy balance–subsurface model dataset, which provides detailed information on distributed climatic mass balance, snow conditions, and runoff across Svalbard between 1957 and 2018.
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Short summary
We analysed the impact of a summer snow accumulation event linked to an atmospheric river in central Chile. Using observational and remote sensing data, we show that accumulation prevails in all the glaciers of the Maipo River basin, and this sole event defines the fact that the Olivares Alfa glacier mass balance was close to equilibrium despite it being a dry year. This demonstrates that an unseasonal accumulation event can counteract the seasonal trends affecting subtropical Andean glaciers.
We analysed the impact of a summer snow accumulation event linked to an atmospheric river in...
