Interannual climate variability helps define the mean state of glaciers
Changes in glacier length and extent are indicators of contemporary and archives of past climate changes, but this common climate proxy presents a challenge for inferring a climate signal. Modeling studies suggest that length fluctuations can occur due to interannual climate variability within an un...
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Cambridge University Press
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.28 https://doaj.org/article/f72022641dcc42739fed4a2ccadcbe48 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f72022641dcc42739fed4a2ccadcbe48 2023-05-15T16:57:33+02:00 Interannual climate variability helps define the mean state of glaciers ANDREW G.O. MALONE ALICE M. DOUGHTY DOUGLAS R. MACAYEAL 2019-06-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.28 https://doaj.org/article/f72022641dcc42739fed4a2ccadcbe48 EN eng Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143019000285/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2019.28 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/f72022641dcc42739fed4a2ccadcbe48 Journal of Glaciology, Vol 65, Pp 508-517 (2019) climate change glacier fluctuations glacier modeling mountain glaciers paleoclimate Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.28 2023-03-12T01:30:57Z Changes in glacier length and extent are indicators of contemporary and archives of past climate changes, but this common climate proxy presents a challenge for inferring a climate signal. Modeling studies suggest that length fluctuations can occur due to interannual climate variability within an unchanging mean climate and that changes in interannual climate variability can also drive changes in average length. This paper quantifies the impacts of interannual climate variability on average glacier length and mass balance, using a flowline model coupled to a simplified mass-balance model. Results illustrate that changes in the magnitude of interannual temperature variability can non-linearly affect the mean glacier length through a mass-balance asymmetry between warm and cold years. This asymmetry is present in models where melt only initiates after a temperature threshold is crossed. Glaciers susceptible to this asymmetry can be identified based on the shape of their mass-balance profiles. The presence of mass-balance asymmetries in glaciological databases is evaluated, but current records are too short for high statistical resolving power. While the asymmetry in this study can affect the average length and mass-balance, its impacts are small, and paleoclimate interpretations from glacier-length changes are likely not notably influenced by this process. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Journal of Glaciology 65 251 508 517 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
climate change glacier fluctuations glacier modeling mountain glaciers paleoclimate Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
climate change glacier fluctuations glacier modeling mountain glaciers paleoclimate Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 ANDREW G.O. MALONE ALICE M. DOUGHTY DOUGLAS R. MACAYEAL Interannual climate variability helps define the mean state of glaciers |
topic_facet |
climate change glacier fluctuations glacier modeling mountain glaciers paleoclimate Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
Changes in glacier length and extent are indicators of contemporary and archives of past climate changes, but this common climate proxy presents a challenge for inferring a climate signal. Modeling studies suggest that length fluctuations can occur due to interannual climate variability within an unchanging mean climate and that changes in interannual climate variability can also drive changes in average length. This paper quantifies the impacts of interannual climate variability on average glacier length and mass balance, using a flowline model coupled to a simplified mass-balance model. Results illustrate that changes in the magnitude of interannual temperature variability can non-linearly affect the mean glacier length through a mass-balance asymmetry between warm and cold years. This asymmetry is present in models where melt only initiates after a temperature threshold is crossed. Glaciers susceptible to this asymmetry can be identified based on the shape of their mass-balance profiles. The presence of mass-balance asymmetries in glaciological databases is evaluated, but current records are too short for high statistical resolving power. While the asymmetry in this study can affect the average length and mass-balance, its impacts are small, and paleoclimate interpretations from glacier-length changes are likely not notably influenced by this process. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
ANDREW G.O. MALONE ALICE M. DOUGHTY DOUGLAS R. MACAYEAL |
author_facet |
ANDREW G.O. MALONE ALICE M. DOUGHTY DOUGLAS R. MACAYEAL |
author_sort |
ANDREW G.O. MALONE |
title |
Interannual climate variability helps define the mean state of glaciers |
title_short |
Interannual climate variability helps define the mean state of glaciers |
title_full |
Interannual climate variability helps define the mean state of glaciers |
title_fullStr |
Interannual climate variability helps define the mean state of glaciers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Interannual climate variability helps define the mean state of glaciers |
title_sort |
interannual climate variability helps define the mean state of glaciers |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.28 https://doaj.org/article/f72022641dcc42739fed4a2ccadcbe48 |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology, Vol 65, Pp 508-517 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143019000285/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2019.28 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/f72022641dcc42739fed4a2ccadcbe48 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.28 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
65 |
container_issue |
251 |
container_start_page |
508 |
op_container_end_page |
517 |
_version_ |
1766049113811451904 |