Detection of abrupt changes in glacier mass balance in the Tien Shan Mountains

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Author: Cao, M. S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1998
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Pacific; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000002677; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000002677

Abstract Based on glacier mass-balance records collected, compiled and published by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), an attempt is made here to determine whether there were abrupt decadal-scale changes in annual balance on glaciers in the Tien Shan Mountains. There appears to have been an abrupt change in the mid-1970s; two-thirds of the change was caused by an increase in annual ablation and the other one-third by a decrease in the annual accumulation. Thus, the change was caused mainly by a summer-temperature increase, supplemented by a decrease in annual snowfall. Climate records suggest that this event, in effect, is in response to a shift hi the background state of the coupled Ocean -atmosphere system over the Tropical Pacific during the mid-1970s.