Threefold increase in marine-terminating outlet glacier retreat rates across the Atlantic Arctic: 1992–2010
Accelerated discharge through marine-terminating outlet glaciers has been a key component of the rapid mass loss from Arctic glaciers since the 1990s. However, glacier retreat and its climatic controls have not been assessed at the pan-Arctic scale. Consequently, the spatial and temporal variability...
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Cambridge University Press
2017
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2017.3 https://doaj.org/article/52e199ff8665475b91c50bc0b29ef2af |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:52e199ff8665475b91c50bc0b29ef2af 2023-05-15T13:29:32+02:00 Threefold increase in marine-terminating outlet glacier retreat rates across the Atlantic Arctic: 1992–2010 J. Rachel Carr Chris. R. Stokes Andreas Vieli 2017-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2017.3 https://doaj.org/article/52e199ff8665475b91c50bc0b29ef2af EN eng Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0260305517000039/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0260-3055 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5644 doi:10.1017/aog.2017.3 0260-3055 1727-5644 https://doaj.org/article/52e199ff8665475b91c50bc0b29ef2af Annals of Glaciology, Vol 58, Pp 72-91 (2017) Arctic glaciology atmosphere/ice/ocean interactions climate change glacier monitoring remote sensing Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2017 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2017.3 2023-03-12T01:31:57Z Accelerated discharge through marine-terminating outlet glaciers has been a key component of the rapid mass loss from Arctic glaciers since the 1990s. However, glacier retreat and its climatic controls have not been assessed at the pan-Arctic scale. Consequently, the spatial and temporal variability in the magnitude of retreat, and the possible drivers are uncertain. Here we use remotely sensed data acquired over 273 outlet glaciers, located across the entire Atlantic Arctic (i.e. areas potentially influenced by North Atlantic climate and/or ocean conditions, specifically: Greenland, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land and Svalbard), to demonstrate high-magnitude, accelerating and near-ubiquitous retreat between 1992 and 2010. Overall, mean retreat rates increased by a factor of 3.5 between 1992 and 2000 (−30.5 m a−1) and 2000–10 (−105.8 m a−1), with 97% of the study glaciers retreating during the latter period. The Retreat was greatest in northern, western and south-eastern Greenland and also increased substantially on the Barents Sea coast of Novaya Zemlya. Glacier retreat showed no significant or consistent relationship with summer air temperatures at decadal timescales. The rate of frontal position change showed a significant, but weak, correlation with changes in sea-ice concentrations. We highlight large variations in retreat rates within regions and suggest that fjord topography plays an important role. We conclude that marine-terminating Arctic outlet glaciers show a common response of rapid and accelerating retreat at decadal timescales. Article in Journal/Newspaper Annals of Glaciology Arctic Atlantic Arctic Atlantic-Arctic Barents Sea Climate change Franz Josef Land glacier glacier Greenland North Atlantic Novaya Zemlya Sea ice Svalbard Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Svalbard Barents Sea Greenland Franz Josef Land ENVELOPE(55.000,55.000,81.000,81.000) Annals of Glaciology 58 74 72 91 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic glaciology atmosphere/ice/ocean interactions climate change glacier monitoring remote sensing Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic glaciology atmosphere/ice/ocean interactions climate change glacier monitoring remote sensing Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 J. Rachel Carr Chris. R. Stokes Andreas Vieli Threefold increase in marine-terminating outlet glacier retreat rates across the Atlantic Arctic: 1992–2010 |
topic_facet |
Arctic glaciology atmosphere/ice/ocean interactions climate change glacier monitoring remote sensing Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
Accelerated discharge through marine-terminating outlet glaciers has been a key component of the rapid mass loss from Arctic glaciers since the 1990s. However, glacier retreat and its climatic controls have not been assessed at the pan-Arctic scale. Consequently, the spatial and temporal variability in the magnitude of retreat, and the possible drivers are uncertain. Here we use remotely sensed data acquired over 273 outlet glaciers, located across the entire Atlantic Arctic (i.e. areas potentially influenced by North Atlantic climate and/or ocean conditions, specifically: Greenland, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land and Svalbard), to demonstrate high-magnitude, accelerating and near-ubiquitous retreat between 1992 and 2010. Overall, mean retreat rates increased by a factor of 3.5 between 1992 and 2000 (−30.5 m a−1) and 2000–10 (−105.8 m a−1), with 97% of the study glaciers retreating during the latter period. The Retreat was greatest in northern, western and south-eastern Greenland and also increased substantially on the Barents Sea coast of Novaya Zemlya. Glacier retreat showed no significant or consistent relationship with summer air temperatures at decadal timescales. The rate of frontal position change showed a significant, but weak, correlation with changes in sea-ice concentrations. We highlight large variations in retreat rates within regions and suggest that fjord topography plays an important role. We conclude that marine-terminating Arctic outlet glaciers show a common response of rapid and accelerating retreat at decadal timescales. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
J. Rachel Carr Chris. R. Stokes Andreas Vieli |
author_facet |
J. Rachel Carr Chris. R. Stokes Andreas Vieli |
author_sort |
J. Rachel Carr |
title |
Threefold increase in marine-terminating outlet glacier retreat rates across the Atlantic Arctic: 1992–2010 |
title_short |
Threefold increase in marine-terminating outlet glacier retreat rates across the Atlantic Arctic: 1992–2010 |
title_full |
Threefold increase in marine-terminating outlet glacier retreat rates across the Atlantic Arctic: 1992–2010 |
title_fullStr |
Threefold increase in marine-terminating outlet glacier retreat rates across the Atlantic Arctic: 1992–2010 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Threefold increase in marine-terminating outlet glacier retreat rates across the Atlantic Arctic: 1992–2010 |
title_sort |
threefold increase in marine-terminating outlet glacier retreat rates across the atlantic arctic: 1992–2010 |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2017.3 https://doaj.org/article/52e199ff8665475b91c50bc0b29ef2af |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(55.000,55.000,81.000,81.000) |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Barents Sea Greenland Franz Josef Land |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Barents Sea Greenland Franz Josef Land |
genre |
Annals of Glaciology Arctic Atlantic Arctic Atlantic-Arctic Barents Sea Climate change Franz Josef Land glacier glacier Greenland North Atlantic Novaya Zemlya Sea ice Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Annals of Glaciology Arctic Atlantic Arctic Atlantic-Arctic Barents Sea Climate change Franz Josef Land glacier glacier Greenland North Atlantic Novaya Zemlya Sea ice Svalbard |
op_source |
Annals of Glaciology, Vol 58, Pp 72-91 (2017) |
op_relation |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0260305517000039/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0260-3055 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5644 doi:10.1017/aog.2017.3 0260-3055 1727-5644 https://doaj.org/article/52e199ff8665475b91c50bc0b29ef2af |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2017.3 |
container_title |
Annals of Glaciology |
container_volume |
58 |
container_issue |
74 |
container_start_page |
72 |
op_container_end_page |
91 |
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1766001087024726016 |