Spitsbergen; Svalbard. Correspondence

• Main Authors: Piotr Glowacki, Adam Nawrot, Javier Lapazaran, Department Of
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: ground-penetrating radar; thinning rate; Ariebreen; Svalbard; glacier; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.639.5970; http://www.polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/download/11068/pdf_1/

Ariebreen is a small (0.37 km2)-valley glacier located in southern Spitsbergen. Our ground-penetrating radar surveys of the glacier show that it is less than 30 m thick on average, with a maximum thickness of 82 m, and it appears to be entirely cold. By analysing digital terrain models of the ice surface from different dates, we determine the area and volume changes during two periods, 19361990 and 19902007. The total ice volume of the glacier has decreased by 73 % during the entire period 19362007, which is equivalent to a mean mass balance rate of 0.6190.17 m y1 w.eq. The glacier thin-ning rate has increased markedly between the first and second periods, from 0.5090.22 to 0.9590.17 m y1 w.eq. Most Svalbard glaciers have experienced a significant recession since at least the 1930s, and most likely since the end of Little Ice Age in the early part of the 20th century (Werner 1993). This recession has manifested