Fifty Years of Tidewater Glacier Surface Elevation and Retreat Dynamics along the South-East Coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago)
Tidewater glaciers on the east coast of Svalbard were examined for surface elevation changes and retreat rate. An archival digital elevation model (DEM) from 1970 (generated from aerial images by the Norwegian Polar Institute) in combination with recent ArcticDEM were used to compare the surface ele...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:44ffe7b88eda4eb19d222842dab5e617 2023-05-15T16:22:08+02:00 Fifty Years of Tidewater Glacier Surface Elevation and Retreat Dynamics along the South-East Coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago) Jan Kavan Guy D. Tallentire Mihail Demidionov Justyna Dudek Mateusz C. Strzelecki 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14020354 https://doaj.org/article/44ffe7b88eda4eb19d222842dab5e617 EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/2/354 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs14020354 2072-4292 https://doaj.org/article/44ffe7b88eda4eb19d222842dab5e617 Remote Sensing, Vol 14, Iss 354, p 354 (2022) tidewater glaciers surface elevation changes glacier geometry Svalbard Science Q article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14020354 2022-12-31T07:33:40Z Tidewater glaciers on the east coast of Svalbard were examined for surface elevation changes and retreat rate. An archival digital elevation model (DEM) from 1970 (generated from aerial images by the Norwegian Polar Institute) in combination with recent ArcticDEM were used to compare the surface elevation changes of eleven glaciers. This approach was complemented by a retreat rate estimation based on the analysis of Landsat and Sentinel-2 images. In total, four of the 11 tidewater glaciers became land-based due to the retreat of their termini. The remaining tidewater glaciers retreated at an average annual retreat rate of 48 m year −1 , and with range between 10–150 m year −1 . All the glaciers studied experienced thinning in their frontal zones with maximum surface elevation loss exceeding 100 m in the ablation areas of three glaciers. In contrast to the massive retreat and thinning of the frontal zones, a minor increase in ice thickness was recorded in some accumulation areas of the glaciers, exceeding 10 m on three glaciers. The change in glacier geometry suggests an important shift in glacier dynamics over the last 50 years, which very likely reflects the overall trend of increasing air temperatures. Such changes in glacier geometry are common at surging glaciers in their quiescent phase. Surging was detected on two glaciers studied, and was documented by the glacier front readvance and massive surface thinning in high elevated areas. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Norwegian Polar Institute Svalbard Tidewater Spitsbergen Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago Remote Sensing 14 2 354 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
tidewater glaciers surface elevation changes glacier geometry Svalbard Science Q |
spellingShingle |
tidewater glaciers surface elevation changes glacier geometry Svalbard Science Q Jan Kavan Guy D. Tallentire Mihail Demidionov Justyna Dudek Mateusz C. Strzelecki Fifty Years of Tidewater Glacier Surface Elevation and Retreat Dynamics along the South-East Coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago) |
topic_facet |
tidewater glaciers surface elevation changes glacier geometry Svalbard Science Q |
description |
Tidewater glaciers on the east coast of Svalbard were examined for surface elevation changes and retreat rate. An archival digital elevation model (DEM) from 1970 (generated from aerial images by the Norwegian Polar Institute) in combination with recent ArcticDEM were used to compare the surface elevation changes of eleven glaciers. This approach was complemented by a retreat rate estimation based on the analysis of Landsat and Sentinel-2 images. In total, four of the 11 tidewater glaciers became land-based due to the retreat of their termini. The remaining tidewater glaciers retreated at an average annual retreat rate of 48 m year −1 , and with range between 10–150 m year −1 . All the glaciers studied experienced thinning in their frontal zones with maximum surface elevation loss exceeding 100 m in the ablation areas of three glaciers. In contrast to the massive retreat and thinning of the frontal zones, a minor increase in ice thickness was recorded in some accumulation areas of the glaciers, exceeding 10 m on three glaciers. The change in glacier geometry suggests an important shift in glacier dynamics over the last 50 years, which very likely reflects the overall trend of increasing air temperatures. Such changes in glacier geometry are common at surging glaciers in their quiescent phase. Surging was detected on two glaciers studied, and was documented by the glacier front readvance and massive surface thinning in high elevated areas. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jan Kavan Guy D. Tallentire Mihail Demidionov Justyna Dudek Mateusz C. Strzelecki |
author_facet |
Jan Kavan Guy D. Tallentire Mihail Demidionov Justyna Dudek Mateusz C. Strzelecki |
author_sort |
Jan Kavan |
title |
Fifty Years of Tidewater Glacier Surface Elevation and Retreat Dynamics along the South-East Coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago) |
title_short |
Fifty Years of Tidewater Glacier Surface Elevation and Retreat Dynamics along the South-East Coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago) |
title_full |
Fifty Years of Tidewater Glacier Surface Elevation and Retreat Dynamics along the South-East Coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago) |
title_fullStr |
Fifty Years of Tidewater Glacier Surface Elevation and Retreat Dynamics along the South-East Coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fifty Years of Tidewater Glacier Surface Elevation and Retreat Dynamics along the South-East Coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago) |
title_sort |
fifty years of tidewater glacier surface elevation and retreat dynamics along the south-east coast of spitsbergen (svalbard archipelago) |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14020354 https://doaj.org/article/44ffe7b88eda4eb19d222842dab5e617 |
geographic |
Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
geographic_facet |
Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
genre |
glacier Norwegian Polar Institute Svalbard Tidewater Spitsbergen |
genre_facet |
glacier Norwegian Polar Institute Svalbard Tidewater Spitsbergen |
op_source |
Remote Sensing, Vol 14, Iss 354, p 354 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/2/354 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs14020354 2072-4292 https://doaj.org/article/44ffe7b88eda4eb19d222842dab5e617 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14020354 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
354 |
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1766010115316514816 |