Characteristics of mountain glaciers in the northern Japanese Alps
Since 2012, seven perennial snow patches in the northern Japanese Alps have been determined to be very small glaciers (VSGs: < 0.5 km 2 ). However, it had not been determined how such glaciers could be maintained in such a warm climate. In this study, we calculate the annual mass balance, accumul...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:e421d822f56945cf82e216c9f1aa066d 2023-05-15T18:32:27+02:00 Characteristics of mountain glaciers in the northern Japanese Alps K. Arie C. Narama R. Yamamoto K. Fukui H. Iida 2022-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1091-2022 https://doaj.org/article/e421d822f56945cf82e216c9f1aa066d EN eng Copernicus Publications https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/1091/2022/tc-16-1091-2022.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-16-1091-2022 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/e421d822f56945cf82e216c9f1aa066d The Cryosphere, Vol 16, Pp 1091-1106 (2022) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1091-2022 2022-12-31T08:23:09Z Since 2012, seven perennial snow patches in the northern Japanese Alps have been determined to be very small glaciers (VSGs: < 0.5 km 2 ). However, it had not been determined how such glaciers could be maintained in such a warm climate. In this study, we calculate the annual mass balance, accumulation depth, and ablation depth of five of these VSGs, covering 2015–2019 for four of them (2017–2019 for the fifth) using multi-period digital surface models (DSMs) based on structure-from-motion–multi-view-stereo (SfM–MVS) technology and images taken from a small airplane. The results indicate that, due to snow acquired from avalanches and snowdrifts, these VSGs are maintained by an accumulation in winter that is more than double that from the snowfall, thereby exceeding the ablation in summer. Therefore, we classify them as topographically controlled VSGs. We find very small yearly fluctuations in their ablation depth; however, their annual mass balance and accumulation depth have large yearly fluctuations. The annual mass balance, which mainly depends on the accumulation depth, showed accumulation throughout each glacier during heavy snow years and ablation throughout each glacier during light snow years. This characteristic differs from the upper accumulation area and lower ablation area that exists on most glaciers. These VSGs lack a positive annual mass balance gradient, which suggests that they are not divided by a distinct glacier equilibrium line altitude (ELA) into an upstream accumulation area and a downstream ablation area. Moreover, compared to other glaciers worldwide, we find the mass balance amplitude of VSGs in the northern Japanese Alps to be the highest measured to date. Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Ela ENVELOPE(9.642,9.642,63.170,63.170) The Cryosphere 16 3 1091 1106 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 K. Arie C. Narama R. Yamamoto K. Fukui H. Iida Characteristics of mountain glaciers in the northern Japanese Alps |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
Since 2012, seven perennial snow patches in the northern Japanese Alps have been determined to be very small glaciers (VSGs: < 0.5 km 2 ). However, it had not been determined how such glaciers could be maintained in such a warm climate. In this study, we calculate the annual mass balance, accumulation depth, and ablation depth of five of these VSGs, covering 2015–2019 for four of them (2017–2019 for the fifth) using multi-period digital surface models (DSMs) based on structure-from-motion–multi-view-stereo (SfM–MVS) technology and images taken from a small airplane. The results indicate that, due to snow acquired from avalanches and snowdrifts, these VSGs are maintained by an accumulation in winter that is more than double that from the snowfall, thereby exceeding the ablation in summer. Therefore, we classify them as topographically controlled VSGs. We find very small yearly fluctuations in their ablation depth; however, their annual mass balance and accumulation depth have large yearly fluctuations. The annual mass balance, which mainly depends on the accumulation depth, showed accumulation throughout each glacier during heavy snow years and ablation throughout each glacier during light snow years. This characteristic differs from the upper accumulation area and lower ablation area that exists on most glaciers. These VSGs lack a positive annual mass balance gradient, which suggests that they are not divided by a distinct glacier equilibrium line altitude (ELA) into an upstream accumulation area and a downstream ablation area. Moreover, compared to other glaciers worldwide, we find the mass balance amplitude of VSGs in the northern Japanese Alps to be the highest measured to date. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
K. Arie C. Narama R. Yamamoto K. Fukui H. Iida |
author_facet |
K. Arie C. Narama R. Yamamoto K. Fukui H. Iida |
author_sort |
K. Arie |
title |
Characteristics of mountain glaciers in the northern Japanese Alps |
title_short |
Characteristics of mountain glaciers in the northern Japanese Alps |
title_full |
Characteristics of mountain glaciers in the northern Japanese Alps |
title_fullStr |
Characteristics of mountain glaciers in the northern Japanese Alps |
title_full_unstemmed |
Characteristics of mountain glaciers in the northern Japanese Alps |
title_sort |
characteristics of mountain glaciers in the northern japanese alps |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1091-2022 https://doaj.org/article/e421d822f56945cf82e216c9f1aa066d |
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ENVELOPE(9.642,9.642,63.170,63.170) |
geographic |
Ela |
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Ela |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 16, Pp 1091-1106 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/1091/2022/tc-16-1091-2022.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-16-1091-2022 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/e421d822f56945cf82e216c9f1aa066d |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1091-2022 |
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The Cryosphere |
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