Reanalysis of the US Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers: long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance
Mountain glaciers integrate climate processes to provide an unmatched signal of regional climate forcing. However, extracting the climate signal via intercomparison of regional glacier mass-balance records can be problematic when methods for extrapolating and calibrating direct glaciological measure...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:5026b4739e954a2aa26239f1ed376db8 2023-05-15T15:07:18+02:00 Reanalysis of the US Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers: long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance Shad O'Neel Christopher McNeil Louis C. Sass Caitlyn Florentine Emily H. Baker Erich Peitzsch Daniel McGrath Andrew G. Fountain Daniel Fagre 2019-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.66 https://doaj.org/article/5026b4739e954a2aa26239f1ed376db8 EN eng Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143019000662/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2019.66 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/5026b4739e954a2aa26239f1ed376db8 Journal of Glaciology, Vol 65, Pp 850-866 (2019) Arctic glaciology glacier mass balance mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.66 2023-03-12T01:30:57Z Mountain glaciers integrate climate processes to provide an unmatched signal of regional climate forcing. However, extracting the climate signal via intercomparison of regional glacier mass-balance records can be problematic when methods for extrapolating and calibrating direct glaciological measurements are mixed or inconsistent. To address this problem, we reanalyzed and compared long-term mass-balance records from the US Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers. These five glaciers span maritime and continental climate regimes of the western United States and Alaska. Each glacier exhibits cumulative mass loss since the mid-20th century, with average rates ranging from −0.58 to −0.30 m w.e. a−1. We produced a set of solutions using different extrapolation and calibration methods to inform uncertainty estimates, which range from 0.22 to 0.44 m w.e. a−1. Mass losses are primarily driven by increasing summer warming. Continentality exerts a stronger control on mass loss than latitude. Similar to elevation, topographic shading, snow redistribution and glacier surface features often exert important mass-balance controls. The reanalysis underscores the value of geodetic calibration to resolve mass-balance magnitude, as well as the irreplaceable value of direct measurements in contributing to the process-based understanding of glacier mass balance. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic glacier glaciers Journal of Glaciology Alaska Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Journal of Glaciology 65 253 850 866 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic glaciology glacier mass balance mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic glaciology glacier mass balance mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 Shad O'Neel Christopher McNeil Louis C. Sass Caitlyn Florentine Emily H. Baker Erich Peitzsch Daniel McGrath Andrew G. Fountain Daniel Fagre Reanalysis of the US Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers: long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance |
topic_facet |
Arctic glaciology glacier mass balance mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
Mountain glaciers integrate climate processes to provide an unmatched signal of regional climate forcing. However, extracting the climate signal via intercomparison of regional glacier mass-balance records can be problematic when methods for extrapolating and calibrating direct glaciological measurements are mixed or inconsistent. To address this problem, we reanalyzed and compared long-term mass-balance records from the US Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers. These five glaciers span maritime and continental climate regimes of the western United States and Alaska. Each glacier exhibits cumulative mass loss since the mid-20th century, with average rates ranging from −0.58 to −0.30 m w.e. a−1. We produced a set of solutions using different extrapolation and calibration methods to inform uncertainty estimates, which range from 0.22 to 0.44 m w.e. a−1. Mass losses are primarily driven by increasing summer warming. Continentality exerts a stronger control on mass loss than latitude. Similar to elevation, topographic shading, snow redistribution and glacier surface features often exert important mass-balance controls. The reanalysis underscores the value of geodetic calibration to resolve mass-balance magnitude, as well as the irreplaceable value of direct measurements in contributing to the process-based understanding of glacier mass balance. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Shad O'Neel Christopher McNeil Louis C. Sass Caitlyn Florentine Emily H. Baker Erich Peitzsch Daniel McGrath Andrew G. Fountain Daniel Fagre |
author_facet |
Shad O'Neel Christopher McNeil Louis C. Sass Caitlyn Florentine Emily H. Baker Erich Peitzsch Daniel McGrath Andrew G. Fountain Daniel Fagre |
author_sort |
Shad O'Neel |
title |
Reanalysis of the US Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers: long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance |
title_short |
Reanalysis of the US Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers: long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance |
title_full |
Reanalysis of the US Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers: long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance |
title_fullStr |
Reanalysis of the US Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers: long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance |
title_full_unstemmed |
Reanalysis of the US Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers: long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance |
title_sort |
reanalysis of the us geological survey benchmark glaciers: long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.66 https://doaj.org/article/5026b4739e954a2aa26239f1ed376db8 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic glacier glaciers Journal of Glaciology Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic glacier glaciers Journal of Glaciology Alaska |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology, Vol 65, Pp 850-866 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143019000662/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2019.66 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/5026b4739e954a2aa26239f1ed376db8 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.66 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
65 |
container_issue |
253 |
container_start_page |
850 |
op_container_end_page |
866 |
_version_ |
1766338838265856000 |