Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska
Abstract We present spatially distributed seasonal and annual surface mass balances of Wolverine Glacier, Alaska, from 2016 to 2020. Our approach accounts for the effects of ice emergence and firn compaction on surface elevation changes to resolve the spatial patterns in mass balance at 10 m scale....
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Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2022
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2022.46 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143022000466 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/jog.2022.46 2024-03-03T08:44:34+00:00 Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska Zeller, Lucas McGrath, Daniel Sass, Louis O'Neel, Shad McNeil, Christopher Baker, Emily U.S. Geological Survey 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2022.46 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143022000466 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Journal of Glaciology volume 69, issue 273, page 87-102 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 Earth-Surface Processes journal-article 2022 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2022.46 2024-02-08T08:48:34Z Abstract We present spatially distributed seasonal and annual surface mass balances of Wolverine Glacier, Alaska, from 2016 to 2020. Our approach accounts for the effects of ice emergence and firn compaction on surface elevation changes to resolve the spatial patterns in mass balance at 10 m scale. We present and compare three methods for estimating emergence velocities. Firn compaction was constrained by optimizing a firn model to fit three firn cores. Distributed mass balances showed good agreement with mass-balance stakes (RMSE = 0.67 m w.e., r = 0.99, n = 41) and ground-penetrating radar surveys (RMSE = 0.36 m w.e., r = 0.85, n = 9024). Fundamental differences in the distributions of seasonal balances highlight the importance of disparate physical processes, with anomalously high ablation rates observed in icefalls. Winter balances were found to be positively skewed when controlling for elevation, while summer and annual balances were negatively skewed. We show that only a small percent of the glacier surface represents ideal locations for mass-balance stake placement. Importantly, no suitable areas are found near the terminus or in elevation bands dominated by icefalls. These findings offer explanations for the often-needed geodetic calibrations of glaciological time series. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Journal of Glaciology Alaska Cambridge University Press Journal of Glaciology 1 16 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
Earth-Surface Processes |
spellingShingle |
Earth-Surface Processes Zeller, Lucas McGrath, Daniel Sass, Louis O'Neel, Shad McNeil, Christopher Baker, Emily Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska |
topic_facet |
Earth-Surface Processes |
description |
Abstract We present spatially distributed seasonal and annual surface mass balances of Wolverine Glacier, Alaska, from 2016 to 2020. Our approach accounts for the effects of ice emergence and firn compaction on surface elevation changes to resolve the spatial patterns in mass balance at 10 m scale. We present and compare three methods for estimating emergence velocities. Firn compaction was constrained by optimizing a firn model to fit three firn cores. Distributed mass balances showed good agreement with mass-balance stakes (RMSE = 0.67 m w.e., r = 0.99, n = 41) and ground-penetrating radar surveys (RMSE = 0.36 m w.e., r = 0.85, n = 9024). Fundamental differences in the distributions of seasonal balances highlight the importance of disparate physical processes, with anomalously high ablation rates observed in icefalls. Winter balances were found to be positively skewed when controlling for elevation, while summer and annual balances were negatively skewed. We show that only a small percent of the glacier surface represents ideal locations for mass-balance stake placement. Importantly, no suitable areas are found near the terminus or in elevation bands dominated by icefalls. These findings offer explanations for the often-needed geodetic calibrations of glaciological time series. |
author2 |
U.S. Geological Survey |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Zeller, Lucas McGrath, Daniel Sass, Louis O'Neel, Shad McNeil, Christopher Baker, Emily |
author_facet |
Zeller, Lucas McGrath, Daniel Sass, Louis O'Neel, Shad McNeil, Christopher Baker, Emily |
author_sort |
Zeller, Lucas |
title |
Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska |
title_short |
Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska |
title_full |
Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Beyond glacier-wide mass balances: parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska |
title_sort |
beyond glacier-wide mass balances: parsing seasonal elevation change into spatially resolved patterns of accumulation and ablation at wolverine glacier, alaska |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2022.46 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143022000466 |
genre |
glacier Journal of Glaciology Alaska |
genre_facet |
glacier Journal of Glaciology Alaska |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology volume 69, issue 273, page 87-102 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2022.46 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_start_page |
1 |
op_container_end_page |
16 |
_version_ |
1792500055966482432 |