Climate-change indicators from Archival aerial photography of the Antarctic Peninsula

• Published in: Annals of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Fox, A.J., Cooper, A.P.R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: International Glaciological Society 1998
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Marguerite; Rothera; Marguerite Bay; Wilkins; Graham Land; Larsen Ice Shelf; Wordie; Wordie Ice Shelf; Annals of Glaciology; Antarc*; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/504014/; https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/annals-of-glaciology/article/climatechange-indicators-from-archival-aerial-photography-of-the-antarctic-peninsula/119DB904FEE1461A56692A74841C9C32

Aerial photography has been used as a mapping tool in the Antarctic Peninsula region since the late 1920s. Following pioneering work by Wilkins in 1928, Ellsworth in 1934 and the British Graham Land Expedition in 1934-37, the Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition carried out extensive aerial photography during the period 1955-57. Since then, many other aerial surveys have been carried out, and the result is an archive of aerial photography that, for some localities, spans 40 years. The production of maps both from different generations of photographs and satellite images has revealed many changes in the extent of ice cover with time. For example, changes in ice shelves such as the Wordie Ice Shelf, Larsen Ice Shelf and Muller Ice Shelf, are well recorded, and the termini of some glaciers have retreated. However, the most pervasive change is the consistent decline in the extent of small bodies of snow and ice. This paper shows how perennial snow or ice cover has decreased in the northern Marguerite Bay area, at 68° S. T he correlation of the change with elevation and with climate records from Adelaide and Rothera research stations in the Antarctic Peninsula region is examined.