The Retreat of Tien Shan Glaciers (Kyrgyzstan) Since the Little Ice Age Estimated from Aerial Photographs, Lichenometric and Historical Data

The retreat of 293 glaciers in the Tien Shan Mountains (Kyrgyz Republic) from their maximum extent during the Little Ice Age (LIA) is estimated using aerial photographs from 1980 to 1985 and maps at a scale of 1:25000, constructed during period 1956–1990. Two indices of changes are used: the linear distance from the glacier terminus to its Little Ice Age moraine and the difference in absolute elevation of the terminus and the moraine. Historical information about the front positions of glaciers in the 1880s to the 1930s was used as an indirect control of remote sensing data. The age of moraines in key regions was estimated by lichenometry. On average, Tien Shan glaciers have retreated by 989 ± 540 m since the LIA maximum. Their front elevations (dh) rose by 151 ± 105 m. These changes are similar to changes observed in the Alps and western Norway, Pamir‐Alay and Koryak plateau, but greater than in east Siberia over the same interval. Differences between four regions in Tien Shan (northern, western, inner, central) are generally small, though in the northern Tien Shan the glacier retreat and frontal rise are more prominent (1065 ± 479 m and 215 ± 140 m, respectively).     

Identification of frequency changes in synoptic circulation types and consequences for glacier mass balance in Norway

The cumulative net mass balances of maritime glaciers in Norway display a net surplus during the period 1963–2000. The article seeks to establish the causal mechanisms that resulted in the positive net balances occurring on Norwegian maritime glaciers. To achieve this, a Temporal Synoptic Index (TSI) was derived for a 30-year period for a number of synoptic meteorological stations in Norway. The TSI is derived using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and subsequent clustering of component scores to classify days for both winter and summer seasons. Findings indicate that the occurrence of ‘warm’ type air masses during the summer months have increased in frequency, particularly since the late 1980s. A reduction in the frequency of ‘cold’ cluster types during the winter months is evident after this period, while the frequency of ‘warm’ types, with an increased moisture carrying capacity, has increased in frequency. The frequency occurrence of these key air mass types is shown to be significantly related to glacier mass balance during both the accumulation and ablation season. Winter air mass types from maritime source regions act to enhance accumulation and suppress ablation, while summer continental source types suppress accumulation and enhance ablation.     

Flatisen,Svartisen: A Norwegian glacier in decline

ABSTRACT

The advance and retreat of glaciers, influenced by changes of local and regional climates, can result in dramatic landscape changes. The article, which follows up previous documentation of long-term studies at Svartisen, deals with changes of Flatisen: at the end of the 19th century, this was one of the largest glaciers of West Svartisen, and was supplied by accumulation areas that rose to > 1400 m a.s.l. It crossed the river Glomåga and ascended to 100 m above the valley floor. The river had a subglacial course until the 1920s. A proglacial lake, formed in front of the glacier in the 1930s and became larger throughout the rest of the 20th century. Changes of Flatisen between 1957 and 1990 were monitored during visits to the glacier. After the retreating front became inaccessible by land, photographs were taken. Early this century, the glacier retreated from the lake. A helicopter reconnaissance in July 2017 revealed that the surface was almost wholly below 1000 m a.s.l., the local equilibrium line altitude of recent years. Without a permanent accumulation zone, Flatisen is likely to disappear within the first half of the present century.     

RECENT GLACIER ADVANCES IN NORWAY AND NEW ZEALAND: A COMPARISON OF THEIR GLACIOLOGICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL CAUSES

ABSTRACT. Norway and New Zealand both experienced recent glacial advances, commencing in the early 1980s and ceasing around 2000, which were more extensive than any other since the end of the Little Ice Age. Common to both countries, the positive glacier balances are associated with an increase in the strength of westerly atmospheric circulation which brought increased precipitation. In Norway, the changes are also associated with lower ablation season temperatures. In New Zealand, where the positive balances were distributed uniformly throughout the Southern Alps, the period of increased mass balance was coincident with a change in the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation and an associated increase in El Niño/Southern Oscillation events. In Norway, the positive balances occurred across a strong west-east gradient with no balance increases to the continental glaciers of Scandinavia. The Norwegian advances are linked to strongly positive North Atlantic Oscillation events which caused an overall increase of precipitation in the winter accumulation season and a general shift of maximum precipitation from autumn towards winter. These cases both show the influence of atmospheric circulation on maritime glaciers.     

Improving local estimations and regional trends of glacier equilibrium line altitudes

Abstract Small glaciers have short response times to climate change and therefore offer a powerful means of climate monitoring. Glacier responses to climate, or their mass change, may be suggested by a change in the Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA). However, regional climatic reconstructions have repeatedly neglected the importance of local variations in ELAs in preference for regional trends. For small glaciers close to the glaciation level, ignoring the importance of local topographic components in mass balance estimates may lead to erroneous climatic reconstructions. Of 510 small valley and cirque glaciers digitised across northern Scandinavia, 284 were objectively deemed suitable for inferring an ELA. The inferred ELA was derived from the median elevation and several local topographic variables using regression analysis. The glacier elevation, area, slope and aspect parameters were found to be the best predictors of the local ELA. ELA estimations improved from 77% up to 94% accuracy when topographic parameters for every grid‐cell within rasters representing glacier surfaces were computed rather than using subjective measurements from topographic maps. Regional ELA trend surfaces, interpolated between the local ELA values, differed in effectively representing the local variability, depending upon the distribution and accuracy of the local ELA values. A second‐order polynomial trend surface most accurately represented ELA variations across the study area, within the initial local measurement accuracy of ±100 m. It is concluded that current subjective topographic map‐based analyses are unlikely to be sufficiently accurate for predicting the regional ELA of small, sensitive and marginal glaciers, unless CIS‐based spatial analyses are made at a reasonable resolution.     

1900-2007年横断山区部分海洋型冰川变化

横断山区7条海洋型冰川近百年进退速度变化呈现出以退缩为总趋势的阶段性变化,具体表现为20世纪初至1930s的冰川稳定,1930s-1960s的冰川后退,1970s-1980s的冰川稳定或减速后退,20世纪80年代中期以来的冰川后退,这与我国、北半球及横断山区同期的气候变化呈明显对应,展现出冷干阶段冰川稳定或前进、暖湿阶段后退的态势,但各冰川的变化幅度因纬度位置、坡向、冰川规模、局地环境等而存在明显差异.1982/83年大、小贡巴冰川、海螺沟冰川冰舌段的消融水当量分别为2710mm、3139 mm和5281 mm,1990/91-97/98期间海螺沟冰川冰舌段的年均消融水当量为6157 mm,比1982/83年增加了876 mm.2002年夏季白水1号冰川的积雪消融量由于表碛覆盖较少表现出明显的随海拔升高而降低的特征,平均消融水当量为1086.25 mm,2008.9-19.10.13期间白水1号冰川物质平衡花竿的观测表明,花竿布设区域10月6号左右转入物质积累期.期间日均积累深为1cm,折合水当量5mm.     

中国典型季风海洋性冰川区"冰川-径流"系统的全球变化敏感性研究

分析多种数据和资料,再现海螺沟冰川过去100年来的冰川进退过程,分析发现,冰川末端变化阶段在滞后期的基础上,与北半球和中国气温变化的阶段相对应。运用水量-物质平衡法恢复海螺沟冰川45年来的物质平衡变化情况,通过相关性检验发现,物质平衡变化与北半球和中国同期(1960~2004年)气温变化表现出显著负相关。20世纪80年代全球加速变暖,海螺沟冰川冰舌段消融速率为7.86 m/a,冰川河径流量年际和季节变化表明流量主要贡献者是冰雪融水。分析表明,全球变暖是冰川后退、持续亏损及径流量增加的主要原因。     

Digital Terrain Modelling of the Surface and Bed Topography of the Glacier Austre Okstindbreen, Okstindan, Norway

Twentieth-century changes in Norwegian glaciers have been pronounced, but the different geometries and dynamics of the glaciers have caused different responses to similar climatic changes. Close to the Arctic Circle, all the glaciers of Svartisen, the largest ice-covered area of northern Scandinavia, have retreated since the beginning of the century. However, several of the smaller glaciers which end at relatively high altitude have experienced both periods of advance and periods of retreat since the mid-1960s. The mass balance of Engabreen, the largest of the West Svartisen glaciers, was positive in 21 of the 27 years to 1995–96. The sizes of most of the glaciers of the Okstindan area, 60 km south-east of Svartisen, have also decreased throughout the twentieth century, but Corneliussens Bre, a small glacier at the eastern side of the massif, has been advancing since 1970. The areas supplying some of the southern glaciers of Okstindan have been reduced as a result of changes in ice thickness at high altitude. Studies of glacier change are aided by the use of digital terrain models (DTMs). Triangular irregular network DTMs of the surface and bed topography of the largest of the Okstindan glaciers, Austre Okstindbreen, have been used in studies of mass-balance variations and changing surface flow patterns between 1976 and 1995.     

Current Behaviour and Dynamics of the Lowermost Italian Glacier (Montasio Occidentale,Julian Alps)

Smaller glaciers (<0.5 km²) react quickly to environmental changes and typically show a large scatter in their individual response. Accounting for these ice bodies is essential for assessing regional glacier change, given their high number and contribution to the total loss of glacier area in mountain regions. However, studying small glaciers using traditional techniques may be difficult or not feasible, and assessing their current activity and dynamics may be problematic. In this paper, we present an integrated approach for characterizing the current behaviour of a small, avalanche‐fed glacier at low altitude in the Italian Alps, combining geomorphological, geophysical and high‐resolution geodetic surveying with a terrestrial laser scanner. The glacier is still active and shows a detectable mass transfer from the accumulation area to the lower ablation area, which is covered by a thick debris mantle. The glacier owes its existence to the local topo‐climatic conditions, ensured by high rock walls which enhance accumulation by delivering avalanche snow and reduce ablation by providing topographic shading and regulating the debris budget of the glacier catchment. In the last several years the glacier has displayed peculiar behaviour compared with most glaciers of the European Alps, being close to equilibrium conditions in spite of warm ablation seasons. Proportionally small relative changes have also occurred since the Little Ice Age maximum. Compared with the majority of other Alpine glaciers, we infer for this glacier a lower sensitivity to air temperature and a higher sensitivity to precipitation, associated with important feedback from increasing debris cover during unfavourable periods.     

Ablation Rate Estimates over the Greenland Ice Sheet from Microwave Radiometric Data

Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) data are used to estimate the annual melt duration (number of days with melt) for elevation transects over the Greenland ice sheet during the period from 1979‐1986. The annual melt duration is used to estimate the number of positive degree days (PDDs), which are used in a degree‐day mass balance model to determine ablation rates and the equilibrium line altitude (ELA). The annual melt duration along two transects estimated with SMMR data compares favorably, particularly above the ELA, to melt duration calculated from surface temperature data for the same locations. The mass balance estimates and ELA locations along eight transects agree reasonably well with measurements reported in previous studies using surface temperature data. ELAs were within 10m of published values along two transects, and the root mean square error of SMMR‐derived versus surface mass balance measurements was 43mm yr^?1. The estimated error in SMMR‐derived ablation is between ±15% and ±50%, but could be reduced substantially by using daily microwave data available from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I). This research shows the feasibility of using passive microwave data to estimate the ablation rate in order to determine ELA, which can be used to monitor the mass balance of the ice sheet.     

GLACIER RETREAT IN THE MARITIME ALPS AREA

In the southernmost tract of the Alps (Italian‐French Maritime Alps), extensively covered by glaciers during the Last Glacial Maximum, about 30 small glaciers were present by the end of the Little Ice Age. The aim of this paper is to document the progressive decrease towards exhaustion of these glaciers, located at the latitude of 44° N, highlighting the factors affecting their retreat. All available data sources were investigated for this work including: the annual glaciers fluctuations record, comparative analyses of historical maps and multi‐temporal oblique photographs and direct surveys in the field. The history of the Maritime Alps glaciers fluctuations was thoroughly reconstructed. Stationary conditions were observed from 1896 up to the beginning of the 1930s; since then they underwent phases of withdrawal with variable intensity. In the early 1990s, only six glaciers were still present, the extent of which were all was dramatically reduced. In the past two decades, the Maritime Alps glacier fronts experienced a global retreat of about 100 m, with a sharp acceleration after 2002. Currently ice patches along cirque walls and/or semi‐buried lenses of ice are still present; morphological evidence of permafrost creeping in the glacier forefield accounts for the incipient transition to periglacial landforms (i.e. rock glaciers). The main factors controlling glaciers retreat seem to have been their original extent at the beginning of the current regressive phase and their distance from the main chain divide. From a climatic point of view unfavourable factors for glaciers persistence have been in the last decades a remarkable and sharp temperature increase, a decrease in winter snowfall and a shift of the rainfall peak from autumn to spring.     

末次冰期东亚冰川规模与冰川进退异时性问题

1 IntroductionIthas been accepted thatthe glacialextentin the early stage w as largerthan thatin the late stagein Eastern A sia during the Last G laciation and w as different from Europe and N orth A m erica(Li, 1992; Cui et al., 2000). M any scholars hav…     

The glacial extent and glacial advance/retreat asynchroncity in East Asia during Last Glaciation

New dates for last glacial cycle in Tibetan bordering mountains and in East Asia show the glacial extent during the early/middle (MIS3-4) stage is larger than that of the late stage (MIS2) in last glacial cycle. It is asynchronous with the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets maximum and changes in oceanic circulation that predominately control global climate. In research areas, three seasonal precipitation patterns control the accumulation and ablation of glaciers. The modes of the westerlies and the East Asian mountains/islands in and along the Pacific Ocean are favorable to glacier advance with mainly winter precipitation accumulation. There was a global temperature-decreasing phase in the middle stage (MIS3b, 54-44 ka BP), when the glacier extent was larger than that in Last Glaciation Maximum due to the low temperature combined with high moisture. It is revealed that the Quaternary glaciers not only evolved with localization, but also maybe with globalization. The latest studies show a fact that the developmental characteristics of glaciers in high mountains or islands along the western Pacific Ocean are not in accord with those inland areas. Therefore, it can be concluded that glacier development exhibits regional differences. The study validates the reasonableness of the asynchronous advance theory, and ascertains that both the synchronous and asynchronous advance/retreat of glaciers existed from 30 ka BP to 10 ka BP. It is not suitable to emphasize the synchronicity between global ice-volume and glacier change.     

Study of annual mass balance(2011–2013) of Rikha Samba Glacier,Hidden Valley,Mustang, Nepal

Although Himalayan glaciers are of particular interest in terms of future water supplies, regional climate changes, and sea-level rises, little is known about them due to lack of reliable and consistent data. There is a need for monitoring these glaciers to bridge this knowledge gap and to provide field measurements necessary to calibrate and validate the results from different remote sensing operations. Therefore, glaciological observations have been carried out by the Cryosphere Monitoring Project(CMP) since September 2011 on Rikha Samba Glacier in Hidden valley, Mustang district in western Nepal in order to study its annual mass balance. This paper presents the first results of that study. There are 10 glaciers in Hidden Valley, named G1, G2, G3, up to G10. Of these, G5 is the Rikha Samba Glacier, which has the largest area(5.37 km2) in this valley and the highest and lowest altitudes(6,476 and 5,392 m a.s.l., respectively). The glacier mass balance discussed in this paper was calculated using the glaciological method and the equilibrium line altitude(ELA). The glacier showed a negative annual point mass balance along the longitudinal profile of its lower part from September 10, 2011 to October 3, 2012. Stake measurements from October 4, 2012 to September 30, 2013 indicated a negative areal average of annual mass balance-0.088±0.019 m w.e. for the whole glacier. Based on these observations, the ELA of the Rikha Samba Glacier is estimated at 5,800 m a.s.l. in 2013. This negative balance may be due to rising air temperatures in the region, which have been incrementally rising since 1980 accompanied by little or no significant increase in precipitation in that period. The negative mass balance confirms the general shrinking trend of the glacier.     

Scenarios of Future Climate Change: Effects on Frost Occurrence and Severity in the Maritime Uplands of Northern England

Changes in annual frost frequency and annual frost accumulation associated with a variety of temperature change scenarios are mapped for northern England. Estimates of future changes are obtained through application of analytical theory to convert predictions of mean daily minimum temperatures and their inter-diurnal variability to accumulated frost degrees and frost frequency. The baseline climate is provided by regression analysis of surface data involving up to ten terrain variables. Future scenarios include warm and cold analogues, maritime and continental airflow scenarios, arbitrary warming and two general circulation model (GCM) simulations: UKHI (United Kingdom Meteorological Office High Resolution GCM Equilibrium Experiment) and GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies). Considerable contrasts emerge between scenarios, with substantial reductions in frost frequency and accumulation in the two GCM 2 *CO₂ simulations. This is to be expected in a maritime area where small changes in temperature have a large influence on parameters involving threshold temperatures. Increases in frost occur under the continental airflow scenario. Changes in frost do not necessarily complement those in accumulated warmth, and therefore indices combining possible changes in warmth and frost are helpful.     

THE FLUCTUATIONS OF ITALIAN GLACIERS DURING THE LAST CENTURY: A CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ALPINE GLACIER CHANGES

This paper describes the recent evolution of Italian glaciers through an analysis of all available terminus fluctuation data that the authors have entered in a glaciers database (named GLAD) containing 883 records collected on glaciers from 1908 to 2002. Furthermore, a representative subset of data (249 glaciers located in Lombardy) was analysed regarding surface area changes. For the analysis of terminus fluctuations, the glaciers were sorted by size classes according to length. The data showed that during the 20th century Italian Alpine glaciers underwent a generalized retreat, with one distinct and well documented readvance episode that occurred between the 1970s and mid‐1980s, and a poorly documented one around the early 1920s. The rates of terminus advance and retreat have changed without significant delays for the larger glaciers with respect to the smaller ones. However, the smaller the glacier, the more limited the advance (if any) during the 1970s and early 1980s. The behaviour of glaciers shorter than 1 km appears to have changed in the last decade, and between 1993 and 2002 they retreated at a very high rate. The analysis of the subset of data led to a quanti‐fication of surface reduction of c. 10% from 1992 to 1999 for glaciers in Lombardy. Small glaciers proved to contribute strongly to total area loss: in 1999, 232 glaciers (c. 90% of the total) were smaller than 1 km², covering 27.2 km² (less than 30% of the total area), but accounted for 58% of the total loss in area (they had lost 7.4 km²).     

Map Comparison or Traditional Mass-balance Measurements: Which Method is Better?

A number of Norwegian glaciers were selected in the 1960s for long-term mass-balance measurements, to produce necessary hydrological information for hydropower exploitation. Special large-scale glacier maps were produced for field work and data processing, and some glaciers have been mapped more than once. Thus, comparison of glacier maps can be used to calculate changes in glacier volume for some of the glaciers, provided they are of sufficient accuracy.
Conventional mass-balance measurements were carried out on all the selected glaciers. A cumulative calculation of net balances for a series of years is used to indicate the change in a glacier's volume during that period. However, various errors originate in the field, some of which are systematic, particularly on glaciers with large winter accumulation.
The present study indicates that certain errors are difficult to define and determine, For the maritime glacier Ålfotbreen, a cumulative mass-balance calculation gives a positive total balance (+3.4 m water equivalent in the period 1968–88), whereas the map comparison indicates a total negative balance (−5.8 m water equivalent). This indicates a discrepancy between the methods, which must be accounted for.
Determination of errors in mass-balance measurements is difficult. Sinking of stakes in the accumulation area and the use of sounding sticks (steel probes) in heavy snowlayers cause problems.     

Mass Balance of Vernagtferner, Austria, From 1964/65 to 1996/97: Results for Three Sections and the Entire Glacier

In the centre of the highly glacierized Oetztal valley, mass balance is determined for the three neighbouring glaciers Hintereisferner, Kesselwandferner and Vernagtferner, applying the direct glaciological method, related to the 'fixed date' system. The diverging behaviour of the three glaciers due to slightly varying local climatic conditions as well as to different topoclimatological and physiographic features gave reason to analyse the Vernagtferner mass balance separately for three easily discernible sections, i.e. Schwarzwand, Taschachjoch and Brochkogel, each showing characteristic aspect and elevational distributions of area respectively.
The cumulative mass balance of the Vernagtferner for the period 1968/69, when separate mass balance computations for the three sections were started, until 1996/97 amounted to −8.7 m water equivalent (w.e.). The mass loss of the western Schwarzwand section as the part with the largest share of low elevation area was −13.3 m w.e., in contrast to the central Taschachjoch section which lost only −6.6 m w.e. The remaining eastern Brochkogel section with a loss of −8.5 m w.e. fits best the mass balance of the total Vernagtferner although its physiographic characteristics differ markedly from those of the entire glacier. The equilibrium line altitude (ELA) dependence on specific net mass balance ( b ) is slightly different for the three sections, whereas the dependence of the accumulation area–total area ratio (AAR) on b is characterized by nearly identical sensitivities. Moreover, AAR correlates better with b than ELA, therefore AAR is regarded as a more representative parameter for the Vernagtferner than ELA.     

Inferring Glacier Mass Balance Using Radarsat: Results From Peyto Glacier, Canada

The capability of RADARSAT synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for the purpose of snow-line/accumulation area mapping for a temperate alpine glacier is examined. In agreement with other orbital C-band SAR studies, RADARSAT can discriminate between firn and bare ice facies. Limited observations are reported with respect to the electromagnetic variability of the ice facies in the ablation area, but they are inconclusive. Operational considerations are discussed with respect to reconciling the uncertainties of late-summer weather and their possible impact on the dielectric and scattering properties of the glacier surface. Vagaries associated with other glacier settings, mass balance states and their associated facies configurations are discussed including the difficulty of using the transient snow-line to define the equilibrium line and the lower extent of the accumulation area for glaciers where superimposed ice may form.
The radar remote-sensing reconnaissance of equilibrium line altitude (ELA) and accumulation area ratio (AAR) for estimating glacier mass balance requires serious consideration in those instances where traditional ground measurements used in the direct glaciological method are absent. However, with respect to the ELA, such estimates can vary depending on the accuracy of the reference digital elevation information. Moreover, for many glacier configurations, where mass balance variations due to altitude are influenced or in some cases completely masked by local balance variations, defining the ELA may be an irreconcilable problem. Using the AAR may be more robust in this regard. It is further determined that the total error inherent in the reconnaissance method would have serious implications for the confident estimation of mass balance normals and climate-related trends if the method were to be utilized over the longer term.