Articles | Volume 20, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-5941-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-5941-2026
Research article
 | 
15 Oct 2026
Research article |  | 15 Oct 2026

Seasonal surface melt onset and firn freeze-up across the central Wrangell and St. Elias Mountains

Ingalise Kindstedt, Andrew Johnson, Kristin M. Schild, Luke Copland, Christine Dow, Alison Criscitiello, Dominic Winski, Karl Kreutz, and Seth Campbell

Model code and software

GlacierSAR A. Johnson https://github.com/ac-johnson/GlacierSAR

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Short summary
Mountain snow at high elevations is changing as warming causes more melting and water to linger within it. We use satellite radar images from 2015 to 2024 to track when melting starts and when snow refreezes across the Wrangell and St. Elias Mountains on the border of Alaska and Yukon. We find that melting now reaches nearly all elevations, and water often remains trapped well into fall. Only the highest areas stay fully dry, showing widespread impacts of warming on mountain snowpacks.
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