Mass balance measurements on King George Island ice cap in 2007 and 2008 ...

• Main Authors: Rückamp, Martin, Braun, Matthias Holger, Suckro, Sonja K, Blindow, Norbert
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2011
• Subjects: DATE/TIME; LATITUDE; LONGITUDE; UTM Northing, Universal Transverse Mercator; UTM Easting, Universal Transverse Mercator; UTM Zone, Universal Transverse Mercator; ELEVATION; Mass balance in water equivalent per year; Priority Programme 1158 Antarctic Research with Comparable Investigations in Arctic Sea Ice Areas SPP1158; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Climate change; Ice cap; ice core; King George Island; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.773308; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.773308

The Antarctic Peninsula has been identified as a region of rapid on-going climate change with impacts on the cryosphere. The knowledge of glacial changes and freshwater budgets resulting from intensified glacier melt is an important boundary condition for many biological and integrated earth system science approaches. We provide a case study on glacier and mass balance changes for the ice cap of King George Island. The area loss between 2000 and 2008 amounted to about 20 km**2 (about 1.6% of the island area) and compares to glacier retreat rates observed in previous years. Measured net accumulation rates for two years (2007 and 2008) show a strong interannual variability with maximum net accumulation rates of 4950 mm w.e./a and 3184 mm w.e./a, respectively. These net accumulation rates are at least 4 times higher than reported mean values (1926-95) from an ice core. An elevation dependent precipitation rate of 343 mm w.e./a (2007) and 432 mm w.e./a (2008) per 100 m elevation increase was observed. Despite ... : We provide mass balance measurements on the King George Island ice cap on several locations for two subsequent time periods. The measured net accumulation rates for two years (2007 and 2008) show a strong interannual variability with maximum net accumulation rates of 4950 mm w.e. a^-1 and 3184 mm w.e. a^-1, respectively. These net accumulation rates are at least 4 times higher than reported mean values (1926-95) from an ice core. An elevation dependent precipitation rate of 343 mm w.e. a^-1 (2007) and 432 mm w.e. a^-1 (2008) per 100 m elevation increase was observed. ...