Committed retreat: controls on glacier disequilibrium in a warming climate
The widespread retreat of mountain glaciers is a striking emblem of recent climate change. Yet mass-balance observations indicate that many glaciers are out of equilibrium with current climate, meaning that observed retreats do not show the full response to warming. This is a fundamental consequence...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:be95f2ce868b4bd6aff3ee2dffeed530 2023-05-15T16:57:36+02:00 Committed retreat: controls on glacier disequilibrium in a warming climate JOHN ERICH CHRISTIAN MICHELLE KOUTNIK GERARD ROE 2018-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.57 https://doaj.org/article/be95f2ce868b4bd6aff3ee2dffeed530 EN eng Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143018000576/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2018.57 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/be95f2ce868b4bd6aff3ee2dffeed530 Journal of Glaciology, Vol 64, Pp 675-688 (2018) climate change glacier fluctuations glacier modeling Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.57 2023-03-12T01:30:59Z The widespread retreat of mountain glaciers is a striking emblem of recent climate change. Yet mass-balance observations indicate that many glaciers are out of equilibrium with current climate, meaning that observed retreats do not show the full response to warming. This is a fundamental consequence of glacier dynamics: mountain glaciers typically have multidecadal response timescales, and so their response lags centennial-scale climate trends. A substantial difference between transient and equilibrium glacier length persists throughout the warming period; we refer to this length difference as ‘disequilibrium’. Forcing idealized glacier geometries with gradual warming shows that the glacier response timescale fundamentally governs the evolution of disequilibrium. Comparing a hierarchy of different glacier models suggests that accurate estimates of ice thickness and climatology, which control the timescale, are more important than higher order ice dynamics for capturing disequilibrium. Current glacier disequilibrium has previously been estimated for a selection of individual glaciers; our idealized modeling shows that sustained disequilibrium is a fundamental response of glacier dynamics, and is robust across a range of glacier geometries. This implies that many mountain glaciers are committed to additional, kilometer-scale retreats, even without further warming. Disequilibrium must also be addressed when calibrating glacier models used for climate reconstructions and projections of retreat in response to future warming. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Journal of Glaciology 64 246 675 688 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
climate change glacier fluctuations glacier modeling Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
climate change glacier fluctuations glacier modeling Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 JOHN ERICH CHRISTIAN MICHELLE KOUTNIK GERARD ROE Committed retreat: controls on glacier disequilibrium in a warming climate |
topic_facet |
climate change glacier fluctuations glacier modeling Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
The widespread retreat of mountain glaciers is a striking emblem of recent climate change. Yet mass-balance observations indicate that many glaciers are out of equilibrium with current climate, meaning that observed retreats do not show the full response to warming. This is a fundamental consequence of glacier dynamics: mountain glaciers typically have multidecadal response timescales, and so their response lags centennial-scale climate trends. A substantial difference between transient and equilibrium glacier length persists throughout the warming period; we refer to this length difference as ‘disequilibrium’. Forcing idealized glacier geometries with gradual warming shows that the glacier response timescale fundamentally governs the evolution of disequilibrium. Comparing a hierarchy of different glacier models suggests that accurate estimates of ice thickness and climatology, which control the timescale, are more important than higher order ice dynamics for capturing disequilibrium. Current glacier disequilibrium has previously been estimated for a selection of individual glaciers; our idealized modeling shows that sustained disequilibrium is a fundamental response of glacier dynamics, and is robust across a range of glacier geometries. This implies that many mountain glaciers are committed to additional, kilometer-scale retreats, even without further warming. Disequilibrium must also be addressed when calibrating glacier models used for climate reconstructions and projections of retreat in response to future warming. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
JOHN ERICH CHRISTIAN MICHELLE KOUTNIK GERARD ROE |
author_facet |
JOHN ERICH CHRISTIAN MICHELLE KOUTNIK GERARD ROE |
author_sort |
JOHN ERICH CHRISTIAN |
title |
Committed retreat: controls on glacier disequilibrium in a warming climate |
title_short |
Committed retreat: controls on glacier disequilibrium in a warming climate |
title_full |
Committed retreat: controls on glacier disequilibrium in a warming climate |
title_fullStr |
Committed retreat: controls on glacier disequilibrium in a warming climate |
title_full_unstemmed |
Committed retreat: controls on glacier disequilibrium in a warming climate |
title_sort |
committed retreat: controls on glacier disequilibrium in a warming climate |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.57 https://doaj.org/article/be95f2ce868b4bd6aff3ee2dffeed530 |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology, Vol 64, Pp 675-688 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143018000576/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2018.57 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/be95f2ce868b4bd6aff3ee2dffeed530 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.57 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
64 |
container_issue |
246 |
container_start_page |
675 |
op_container_end_page |
688 |
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1766049165109886976 |