The challenge of monitoring glaciers with extreme altitudinal range: mass-balance reconstruction for Kahiltna Glacier, Alaska
Glaciers spanning large altitudinal ranges often experience different climatic regimes with elevation, creating challenges in acquiring mass-balance and climate observations that represent the entire glacier. We use mixed methods to reconstruct the 1991–2014 mass balance of the Kahiltna Glacier in A...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:4117e57ee7724da4b831614d75199cd2 2023-05-15T16:20:20+02:00 The challenge of monitoring glaciers with extreme altitudinal range: mass-balance reconstruction for Kahiltna Glacier, Alaska JOANNA C. YOUNG ANTHONY ARENDT REGINE HOCK ERIN PETTIT 2018-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.80 https://doaj.org/article/4117e57ee7724da4b831614d75199cd2 EN eng Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143017000806/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2017.80 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/4117e57ee7724da4b831614d75199cd2 Journal of Glaciology, Vol 64, Pp 75-88 (2018) glacier mass balance glacier monitoring mass-balance reconstruction mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.80 2023-03-12T01:30:59Z Glaciers spanning large altitudinal ranges often experience different climatic regimes with elevation, creating challenges in acquiring mass-balance and climate observations that represent the entire glacier. We use mixed methods to reconstruct the 1991–2014 mass balance of the Kahiltna Glacier in Alaska, a large (503 km2) glacier with one of the greatest elevation ranges globally (264–6108 m a.s.l.). We calibrate an enhanced temperature index model to glacier-wide mass balances from repeat laser altimetry and point observations, finding a mean net mass-balance rate of −0.74 mw.e. a−1( ± σ = 0.04, std dev. of the best-performing model simulations). Results are validated against mass changes from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, a novel approach at the individual glacier scale. Correlation is strong between the detrended model- and GRACE-derived mass change time series (R 2 = 0.58 and p ≪ 0.001), and between summer (R 2 = 0.69 and p = 0.003) and annual (R 2 = 0.63 and p = 0.006) balances, lending greater confidence to our modeling results. We find poor correlation, however, between modeled glacier-wide balances and recent single-stake monitoring. Finally, we make recommendations for monitoring glaciers with extreme altitudinal ranges, including characterizing precipitation via snow radar profiling. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier glaciers Journal of Glaciology Alaska Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Journal of Glaciology 64 243 75 88 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
glacier mass balance glacier monitoring mass-balance reconstruction mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
glacier mass balance glacier monitoring mass-balance reconstruction mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 JOANNA C. YOUNG ANTHONY ARENDT REGINE HOCK ERIN PETTIT The challenge of monitoring glaciers with extreme altitudinal range: mass-balance reconstruction for Kahiltna Glacier, Alaska |
topic_facet |
glacier mass balance glacier monitoring mass-balance reconstruction mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
Glaciers spanning large altitudinal ranges often experience different climatic regimes with elevation, creating challenges in acquiring mass-balance and climate observations that represent the entire glacier. We use mixed methods to reconstruct the 1991–2014 mass balance of the Kahiltna Glacier in Alaska, a large (503 km2) glacier with one of the greatest elevation ranges globally (264–6108 m a.s.l.). We calibrate an enhanced temperature index model to glacier-wide mass balances from repeat laser altimetry and point observations, finding a mean net mass-balance rate of −0.74 mw.e. a−1( ± σ = 0.04, std dev. of the best-performing model simulations). Results are validated against mass changes from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, a novel approach at the individual glacier scale. Correlation is strong between the detrended model- and GRACE-derived mass change time series (R 2 = 0.58 and p ≪ 0.001), and between summer (R 2 = 0.69 and p = 0.003) and annual (R 2 = 0.63 and p = 0.006) balances, lending greater confidence to our modeling results. We find poor correlation, however, between modeled glacier-wide balances and recent single-stake monitoring. Finally, we make recommendations for monitoring glaciers with extreme altitudinal ranges, including characterizing precipitation via snow radar profiling. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
JOANNA C. YOUNG ANTHONY ARENDT REGINE HOCK ERIN PETTIT |
author_facet |
JOANNA C. YOUNG ANTHONY ARENDT REGINE HOCK ERIN PETTIT |
author_sort |
JOANNA C. YOUNG |
title |
The challenge of monitoring glaciers with extreme altitudinal range: mass-balance reconstruction for Kahiltna Glacier, Alaska |
title_short |
The challenge of monitoring glaciers with extreme altitudinal range: mass-balance reconstruction for Kahiltna Glacier, Alaska |
title_full |
The challenge of monitoring glaciers with extreme altitudinal range: mass-balance reconstruction for Kahiltna Glacier, Alaska |
title_fullStr |
The challenge of monitoring glaciers with extreme altitudinal range: mass-balance reconstruction for Kahiltna Glacier, Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
The challenge of monitoring glaciers with extreme altitudinal range: mass-balance reconstruction for Kahiltna Glacier, Alaska |
title_sort |
challenge of monitoring glaciers with extreme altitudinal range: mass-balance reconstruction for kahiltna glacier, alaska |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.80 https://doaj.org/article/4117e57ee7724da4b831614d75199cd2 |
genre |
glacier glaciers Journal of Glaciology Alaska |
genre_facet |
glacier glaciers Journal of Glaciology Alaska |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology, Vol 64, Pp 75-88 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143017000806/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2017.80 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/4117e57ee7724da4b831614d75199cd2 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.80 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
64 |
container_issue |
243 |
container_start_page |
75 |
op_container_end_page |
88 |
_version_ |
1766008240014884864 |