Volume Balance of White Glacier Terminus, Axel Heiberg Island

• Main Authors: R. A. Hember, J. G. Cogley, M. A. Ecclestone
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Axel Heiberg Island; White Glacier; volume balance; glacier hypsometry; geodetic mass; Heiberg
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.552.8336; http://www.easternsnow.org/proceedings/2004/Hember_et_al.pdf

Digital elevation models of the White Glacier terminus for 1960 and 2003 are produced in order to calculate terminus retreat and volume change. Below 440 m a.s.l., surface elevation is decreasing at an average rate of-0.35 m a-1, implying a-14.36 ± 0.73 m loss of glacier ice during this 42 balance-year period. Terminus volume is decreasing at a rate of 1.41 x 106 m3 a-1. A loss of 0.78 km2 in area accounts for 57 % of the volume change, and is in part due to the advance of the neighbouring Thompson Glacier. This study reevaluates hypsometry in order to quantify a geodetic water-equivalent estimate of ablation for White Glacier terminus. Revised hypsometry results in a 24 % reduction in water-equivalent ablation derived from the direct mass balance of White Glacier terminus. Preliminary examination of the error and the level of difficulty suggests that similar geodetic surveys may benefit climatological linkages by expanding the number, size-and spatial-distribution of small glacier mass balance programmes while simultaneously monitoring water-equivalent ablation.