Brief communication: Thinning of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in a warming climate
Recent geodetic mass-balance measurements reveal similar thinning rates on glaciers with or without debris cover in the Himalaya–Karakoram region. This comes as a surprise as a thick debris cover reduces the surface melting significantly due to its insulating effects. Here we present arguments, supp...
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2017
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:69ad1c8bec6742e1ae12217a760b2c0e 2023-05-15T18:32:21+02:00 Brief communication: Thinning of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in a warming climate A. Banerjee 2017-01-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-133-2017 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/11/133/2017/tc-11-133-2017.pdf https://doaj.org/article/69ad1c8bec6742e1ae12217a760b2c0e en eng Copernicus Publications 1994-0416 1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-11-133-2017 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/11/133/2017/tc-11-133-2017.pdf https://doaj.org/article/69ad1c8bec6742e1ae12217a760b2c0e undefined The Cryosphere, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 133-138 (2017) geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2017 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-133-2017 2023-01-22T18:14:10Z Recent geodetic mass-balance measurements reveal similar thinning rates on glaciers with or without debris cover in the Himalaya–Karakoram region. This comes as a surprise as a thick debris cover reduces the surface melting significantly due to its insulating effects. Here we present arguments, supported by results from numerical flowline model simulations of idealised glaciers, that a competition between the changes in the surface mass-balance forcing and that of the emergence/submergence velocities can lead to similar thinning rates on these two types of glaciers. As the climate starts warming, the thinning rate on a debris-covered glacier is initially smaller than that on a similar debris-free glacier. Subsequently, the rate on the debris-covered glacier becomes comparable to and then larger than that on the debris-free one. The time evolution of glacier-averaged thinning rates after an initial warming is strongly controlled by the time variation of the corresponding emergence velocity profile. Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Unknown The Cryosphere 11 1 133 138 |
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geo envir A. Banerjee Brief communication: Thinning of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in a warming climate |
topic_facet |
geo envir |
description |
Recent geodetic mass-balance measurements reveal similar thinning rates on glaciers with or without debris cover in the Himalaya–Karakoram region. This comes as a surprise as a thick debris cover reduces the surface melting significantly due to its insulating effects. Here we present arguments, supported by results from numerical flowline model simulations of idealised glaciers, that a competition between the changes in the surface mass-balance forcing and that of the emergence/submergence velocities can lead to similar thinning rates on these two types of glaciers. As the climate starts warming, the thinning rate on a debris-covered glacier is initially smaller than that on a similar debris-free glacier. Subsequently, the rate on the debris-covered glacier becomes comparable to and then larger than that on the debris-free one. The time evolution of glacier-averaged thinning rates after an initial warming is strongly controlled by the time variation of the corresponding emergence velocity profile. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
A. Banerjee |
author_facet |
A. Banerjee |
author_sort |
A. Banerjee |
title |
Brief communication: Thinning of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in a warming climate |
title_short |
Brief communication: Thinning of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in a warming climate |
title_full |
Brief communication: Thinning of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in a warming climate |
title_fullStr |
Brief communication: Thinning of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in a warming climate |
title_full_unstemmed |
Brief communication: Thinning of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in a warming climate |
title_sort |
brief communication: thinning of debris-covered and debris-free glaciers in a warming climate |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-133-2017 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/11/133/2017/tc-11-133-2017.pdf https://doaj.org/article/69ad1c8bec6742e1ae12217a760b2c0e |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 133-138 (2017) |
op_relation |
1994-0416 1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-11-133-2017 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/11/133/2017/tc-11-133-2017.pdf https://doaj.org/article/69ad1c8bec6742e1ae12217a760b2c0e |
op_rights |
undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-133-2017 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
133 |
op_container_end_page |
138 |
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1766216452750180352 |