Mass Balance of the Earth's Glaciers and Ice Caps using multi-sensor data
The World's Glaciers and Ice Caps (GIC) contain a sea level rise (SLR) equivalent of about 0.4 m. Although their potential sea level contribution is small compared to Greenland (7.4 m) or Antarctica (58.3 m), the GIC are the largest contributor to global SLR at present. During the last 20 years...
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ftcdlib:qt8zb7p4tv 2023-05-15T14:03:27+02:00 Mass Balance of the Earth's Glaciers and Ice Caps using multi-sensor data Ciracì, Enrico 175 2018-01-01 application/pdf http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8zb7p4tv en eng eScholarship, University of California http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8zb7p4tv qt8zb7p4tv Attribution (CC BY): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-BY Ciracì, Enrico. (2018). Mass Balance of the Earth's Glaciers and Ice Caps using multi-sensor data. UC Irvine: Earth System Science. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8zb7p4tv Geophysics Climate change Hydrologic sciences CryoSat-2 Glaciers and Ice Caps GRACE Indus River Novaya Zemlya Remote-Sensing dissertation 2018 ftcdlib 2019-03-15T23:52:10Z The World's Glaciers and Ice Caps (GIC) contain a sea level rise (SLR) equivalent of about 0.4 m. Although their potential sea level contribution is small compared to Greenland (7.4 m) or Antarctica (58.3 m), the GIC are the largest contributor to global SLR at present. During the last 20 years, the GIC contributed 2.5 cm SLR vs 1 cm for Greenland and Antarctica. Rising global sea levels and posing a significant problem to society. Runoff from the melting GIC has an impact on the regional hydrology and freshwater supply. The latter is of great concern in highly populated regions such as Central Asia where it negatively affects economic activities and political stability. Defining consistent methodologies to monitor the state of GIC in these regions and reduce uncertainties regarding their specific ice mass loss and relative contribution to SLR is critical not only to science but to the public, policy development, and implementation. In this dissertation, we use available satellite and modeling techniques to estimate recent contribution to sea level rise by the ice-covered regions outside the two ice sheets during the last two decades. We estimate glacier mass balance employing: time-variable gravity measurements by the NASA GRACE mission, and satellite altimetry by the NASA ICESat and the ESA CryoSat-2 mission. These techniques are applied in key regions of the Arctic, where increasing atmospheric and ocean temperatures have led to accelerating glacier mass losses. In the second part of this work is focused on the glaciers High Mountains of Asia, the largest freshwater reservoir outside the Polar Regions. Here, we use a mixture of remote sensed observations and atmospheric models to characterize the effect of glacier mass loss on the water cycle of the Indus River Basin.This work helps improve our general understanding of the mechanisms driving current glaciers and ice caps mass change and its relative impact on freshwater availability and sea level rise during the next century. Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Antarc* Antarctica Arctic Climate change glacier Greenland Novaya Zemlya University of California: eScholarship Arctic Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
English |
topic |
Geophysics Climate change Hydrologic sciences CryoSat-2 Glaciers and Ice Caps GRACE Indus River Novaya Zemlya Remote-Sensing |
spellingShingle |
Geophysics Climate change Hydrologic sciences CryoSat-2 Glaciers and Ice Caps GRACE Indus River Novaya Zemlya Remote-Sensing Ciracì, Enrico Mass Balance of the Earth's Glaciers and Ice Caps using multi-sensor data |
topic_facet |
Geophysics Climate change Hydrologic sciences CryoSat-2 Glaciers and Ice Caps GRACE Indus River Novaya Zemlya Remote-Sensing |
description |
The World's Glaciers and Ice Caps (GIC) contain a sea level rise (SLR) equivalent of about 0.4 m. Although their potential sea level contribution is small compared to Greenland (7.4 m) or Antarctica (58.3 m), the GIC are the largest contributor to global SLR at present. During the last 20 years, the GIC contributed 2.5 cm SLR vs 1 cm for Greenland and Antarctica. Rising global sea levels and posing a significant problem to society. Runoff from the melting GIC has an impact on the regional hydrology and freshwater supply. The latter is of great concern in highly populated regions such as Central Asia where it negatively affects economic activities and political stability. Defining consistent methodologies to monitor the state of GIC in these regions and reduce uncertainties regarding their specific ice mass loss and relative contribution to SLR is critical not only to science but to the public, policy development, and implementation. In this dissertation, we use available satellite and modeling techniques to estimate recent contribution to sea level rise by the ice-covered regions outside the two ice sheets during the last two decades. We estimate glacier mass balance employing: time-variable gravity measurements by the NASA GRACE mission, and satellite altimetry by the NASA ICESat and the ESA CryoSat-2 mission. These techniques are applied in key regions of the Arctic, where increasing atmospheric and ocean temperatures have led to accelerating glacier mass losses. In the second part of this work is focused on the glaciers High Mountains of Asia, the largest freshwater reservoir outside the Polar Regions. Here, we use a mixture of remote sensed observations and atmospheric models to characterize the effect of glacier mass loss on the water cycle of the Indus River Basin.This work helps improve our general understanding of the mechanisms driving current glaciers and ice caps mass change and its relative impact on freshwater availability and sea level rise during the next century. |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Ciracì, Enrico |
author_facet |
Ciracì, Enrico |
author_sort |
Ciracì, Enrico |
title |
Mass Balance of the Earth's Glaciers and Ice Caps using multi-sensor data |
title_short |
Mass Balance of the Earth's Glaciers and Ice Caps using multi-sensor data |
title_full |
Mass Balance of the Earth's Glaciers and Ice Caps using multi-sensor data |
title_fullStr |
Mass Balance of the Earth's Glaciers and Ice Caps using multi-sensor data |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mass Balance of the Earth's Glaciers and Ice Caps using multi-sensor data |
title_sort |
mass balance of the earth's glaciers and ice caps using multi-sensor data |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8zb7p4tv |
op_coverage |
175 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Arctic Climate change glacier Greenland Novaya Zemlya |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Arctic Climate change glacier Greenland Novaya Zemlya |
op_source |
Ciracì, Enrico. (2018). Mass Balance of the Earth's Glaciers and Ice Caps using multi-sensor data. UC Irvine: Earth System Science. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8zb7p4tv |
op_relation |
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8zb7p4tv qt8zb7p4tv |
op_rights |
Attribution (CC BY): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
_version_ |
1766274118850707456 |