Correspondence Volume loss from Bering Glacier, Alaska, 1972–2003:
comment on Muskett and others (2009) Alaskan glaciers have experienced rapid and accelerating wastage over the past four to five decades (Arendt and others, 2002) and accounted for 0.120.02mma–1 (7.5%) of total sea-level rise between 1962 and 2006 (Berthier and others, 2010). Ice loss in Alaska is d...
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.662.6122 http://etienne.berthier.free.fr/download/Berthier_JOG_2010_Comment_on_M09_Editor.pdf |
| Summary: | comment on Muskett and others (2009) Alaskan glaciers have experienced rapid and accelerating wastage over the past four to five decades (Arendt and others, 2002) and accounted for 0.120.02mma–1 (7.5%) of total sea-level rise between 1962 and 2006 (Berthier and others, 2010). Ice loss in Alaska is dominated by a few large glaciers located in the vicinity of the Gulf of Alaska (e.g. Columbia, Malaspina and Bering Glaciers). Among them, the Bering Glacier system (BGS) is often regarded as the largest glacier system in North America, with an area of nearly 4400 km2 (Beedle and others, 2008), or>5000 km2 if the accumulation area of Tana Glacier is included (Molnia, 2007). The elevation change and volume loss of the BGS have been estimated by different authors using remote-sensing techniques. They all used the 1972 US Geological Survey (USGS) map as a reference topography. For a 2190 km2 sub-area of the BGS, Arendt and others (2002) found mass loss of 2.30.5 km3w.e. a–1 between 1972 and 2000. They care-fully restricted their analysis to the lower part of Bering Glacier where they flew airborne laser altimetry profiles in 1995 and 2000. Berthier and others (2010) estimated the mass loss of the complete BGS (following the definition of Beedle and others, 2008) as 2.60.5 km3w.e. a–1 by comparing recent (2003–07) digital elevation models |
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