Reconstructing the glacier contribution to sea-level rise back to 1850

• Main Authors: Oerlemans, J., Dyurgerov, M., van de Wal, R. S. W.
• Other Authors: Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU), Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University Utrecht, Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; The Cryosphere; The Cryosphere Discussions
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00298523; https://hal.science/hal-00298523/document; https://hal.science/hal-00298523/file/tcd-1-77-2007.pdf

International audience We present a method to estimate the glacier contribution to sea-level rise from glacier length records. These records form the only direct evidence of glacier changes prior to 1946, when the first systematic mass-balance observations began. A globally representative length signal is calculated from 197 length records from all continents by normalisation and averaging of 14 different regions. Next, the resulting signal is calibrated with mass-balance observations for the period 1961?2000. We find that the glacier contribution to sea level rise was 5.5±1.0 cm during the period 1850?2000 and 4.5±0.7 cm during the period 1900?2000.