Climatic forcing of glacier thinning on the mountains of equatorial East Africa
Abstract Equatorial glaciers are particularly climate sensitive components of the environment and their area shrinkage is spectacular, but the quantitative appraisal of climatic forcing requires information on net balance and changing ice thickness. Unique in the tropical belt, observations of mass...
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crwiley:10.1002/joc.1866 2024-09-15T18:17:49+00:00 Climatic forcing of glacier thinning on the mountains of equatorial East Africa Hastenrath, Stefan 2009 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.1866 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjoc.1866 https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/joc.1866 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor International Journal of Climatology volume 30, issue 1, page 146-152 ISSN 0899-8418 1097-0088 journal-article 2009 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.1866 2024-08-27T04:31:45Z Abstract Equatorial glaciers are particularly climate sensitive components of the environment and their area shrinkage is spectacular, but the quantitative appraisal of climatic forcing requires information on net balance and changing ice thickness. Unique in the tropical belt, observations of mass budget and surface topography have been gathered by decades‐long monitoring on Mount Kenya, particularly its largest, the Lewis Glacier. More limited information on ice thickness change is available for the summit of Kilimanjaro. Sensitivity analyses with constant precipitation, net allwave radiation and relative humidity serve to explore the sensible and latent heat transfer processes; humidity change riding on that of temperature providing the more substantial energy contribution to ablation. For Lewis Glacier it is found that with air some 0.7 °C cooler the mass budget could reach equilibrium. Observations on the secular evolution of air temperature and humidity in the areas of Mount Kenya and Rwenzori show compatible magnitudes, although contribution by radiative forcing cannot be excluded. For the summit of Kilimanjaro, above the mean freezing level, where ablation is limited to sublimation, turbulent heat transfer processes associated with temperature differences cannot account for the imbalance of the mass budget, and solar radiation forcing continues to be important for both the ice thinning and the lateral retreat of ice cliffs. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society Article in Journal/Newspaper Lewis Glacier Wiley Online Library International Journal of Climatology 30 1 146 152 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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English |
description |
Abstract Equatorial glaciers are particularly climate sensitive components of the environment and their area shrinkage is spectacular, but the quantitative appraisal of climatic forcing requires information on net balance and changing ice thickness. Unique in the tropical belt, observations of mass budget and surface topography have been gathered by decades‐long monitoring on Mount Kenya, particularly its largest, the Lewis Glacier. More limited information on ice thickness change is available for the summit of Kilimanjaro. Sensitivity analyses with constant precipitation, net allwave radiation and relative humidity serve to explore the sensible and latent heat transfer processes; humidity change riding on that of temperature providing the more substantial energy contribution to ablation. For Lewis Glacier it is found that with air some 0.7 °C cooler the mass budget could reach equilibrium. Observations on the secular evolution of air temperature and humidity in the areas of Mount Kenya and Rwenzori show compatible magnitudes, although contribution by radiative forcing cannot be excluded. For the summit of Kilimanjaro, above the mean freezing level, where ablation is limited to sublimation, turbulent heat transfer processes associated with temperature differences cannot account for the imbalance of the mass budget, and solar radiation forcing continues to be important for both the ice thinning and the lateral retreat of ice cliffs. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hastenrath, Stefan |
spellingShingle |
Hastenrath, Stefan Climatic forcing of glacier thinning on the mountains of equatorial East Africa |
author_facet |
Hastenrath, Stefan |
author_sort |
Hastenrath, Stefan |
title |
Climatic forcing of glacier thinning on the mountains of equatorial East Africa |
title_short |
Climatic forcing of glacier thinning on the mountains of equatorial East Africa |
title_full |
Climatic forcing of glacier thinning on the mountains of equatorial East Africa |
title_fullStr |
Climatic forcing of glacier thinning on the mountains of equatorial East Africa |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climatic forcing of glacier thinning on the mountains of equatorial East Africa |
title_sort |
climatic forcing of glacier thinning on the mountains of equatorial east africa |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.1866 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjoc.1866 https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/joc.1866 |
genre |
Lewis Glacier |
genre_facet |
Lewis Glacier |
op_source |
International Journal of Climatology volume 30, issue 1, page 146-152 ISSN 0899-8418 1097-0088 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.1866 |
container_title |
International Journal of Climatology |
container_volume |
30 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
146 |
op_container_end_page |
152 |
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1810455921959108608 |