Strong changes in englacial temperatures despite insignificant changes in ice thickness at Dôme du Goûter glacier (Mont Blanc area)
International audience The response of very-high-elevation glaciated areas on Mont Blanc to climate change has been analysed using observations and numerical modelling over the last 2 decades. Unlike the changes at low elevations, we observe very low glacier thickness changes, of about -2.6 m on ave...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Language: | English |
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Online Access: | https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473/document https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473/file/tc-14-925-2020.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-925-2020 |
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ftunivnantes:oai:HAL:insu-03706473v1 2023-05-15T18:32:15+02:00 Strong changes in englacial temperatures despite insignificant changes in ice thickness at Dôme du Goûter glacier (Mont Blanc area) Vincent, Christian Gilbert, Adrien Jourdain, Bruno Piard, Luc Ginot, Patrick Mikhalenko, Vladimir Possenti, Philippe Le Meur, Emmanuel Laarman, Olivier Six, Delphine Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE) Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP ) Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) 2020 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473/document https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473/file/tc-14-925-2020.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-925-2020 en eng HAL CCSD Copernicus info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/tc-14-925-2020 insu-03706473 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473/document https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473/file/tc-14-925-2020.pdf BIBCODE: 2020TCry.14.925V doi:10.5194/tc-14-925-2020 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess ISSN: 1994-0424 EISSN: 1994-0416 The Cryosphere https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473 The Cryosphere, 2020, 14, pp.925-934. ⟨10.5194/tc-14-925-2020⟩ [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2020 ftunivnantes https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-925-2020 2023-03-01T01:36:31Z International audience The response of very-high-elevation glaciated areas on Mont Blanc to climate change has been analysed using observations and numerical modelling over the last 2 decades. Unlike the changes at low elevations, we observe very low glacier thickness changes, of about -2.6 m on average since 1993. The slight changes in horizontal ice flow velocities and submergence velocities suggest a decrease of about 10 % in ice flux and surface mass balance. This is due to less snow accumulation and is consistent with the precipitation decrease observed in meteorological data. Conversely, measurements performed in deep boreholes since 1994 reveal strong changes in englacial temperature reaching a 1.5 ∘ C increase at a depth of 50 m. We conclude that at such very high elevations, current changes in climate do not lead to visible changes in glacier thickness but cause invisible changes within the glacier in terms of englacial temperatures. Our analysis from numerical modelling shows that glacier near-surface temperature warming is enhanced by increasing melt frequency at high elevations although the impact on surface mass balance is low. This results in a non-linear response of englacial temperature to currently rising air temperatures. In addition, borehole temperature inversion including a new dataset confirms previous findings of similar air temperature changes at high and low elevations in the Alps. Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Université de Nantes: HAL-UNIV-NANTES Mont Blanc ENVELOPE(69.468,69.468,-49.461,-49.461) The Cryosphere 14 3 925 934 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Université de Nantes: HAL-UNIV-NANTES |
op_collection_id |
ftunivnantes |
language |
English |
topic |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] |
spellingShingle |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] Vincent, Christian Gilbert, Adrien Jourdain, Bruno Piard, Luc Ginot, Patrick Mikhalenko, Vladimir Possenti, Philippe Le Meur, Emmanuel Laarman, Olivier Six, Delphine Strong changes in englacial temperatures despite insignificant changes in ice thickness at Dôme du Goûter glacier (Mont Blanc area) |
topic_facet |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] |
description |
International audience The response of very-high-elevation glaciated areas on Mont Blanc to climate change has been analysed using observations and numerical modelling over the last 2 decades. Unlike the changes at low elevations, we observe very low glacier thickness changes, of about -2.6 m on average since 1993. The slight changes in horizontal ice flow velocities and submergence velocities suggest a decrease of about 10 % in ice flux and surface mass balance. This is due to less snow accumulation and is consistent with the precipitation decrease observed in meteorological data. Conversely, measurements performed in deep boreholes since 1994 reveal strong changes in englacial temperature reaching a 1.5 ∘ C increase at a depth of 50 m. We conclude that at such very high elevations, current changes in climate do not lead to visible changes in glacier thickness but cause invisible changes within the glacier in terms of englacial temperatures. Our analysis from numerical modelling shows that glacier near-surface temperature warming is enhanced by increasing melt frequency at high elevations although the impact on surface mass balance is low. This results in a non-linear response of englacial temperature to currently rising air temperatures. In addition, borehole temperature inversion including a new dataset confirms previous findings of similar air temperature changes at high and low elevations in the Alps. |
author2 |
Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE) Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP ) Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vincent, Christian Gilbert, Adrien Jourdain, Bruno Piard, Luc Ginot, Patrick Mikhalenko, Vladimir Possenti, Philippe Le Meur, Emmanuel Laarman, Olivier Six, Delphine |
author_facet |
Vincent, Christian Gilbert, Adrien Jourdain, Bruno Piard, Luc Ginot, Patrick Mikhalenko, Vladimir Possenti, Philippe Le Meur, Emmanuel Laarman, Olivier Six, Delphine |
author_sort |
Vincent, Christian |
title |
Strong changes in englacial temperatures despite insignificant changes in ice thickness at Dôme du Goûter glacier (Mont Blanc area) |
title_short |
Strong changes in englacial temperatures despite insignificant changes in ice thickness at Dôme du Goûter glacier (Mont Blanc area) |
title_full |
Strong changes in englacial temperatures despite insignificant changes in ice thickness at Dôme du Goûter glacier (Mont Blanc area) |
title_fullStr |
Strong changes in englacial temperatures despite insignificant changes in ice thickness at Dôme du Goûter glacier (Mont Blanc area) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Strong changes in englacial temperatures despite insignificant changes in ice thickness at Dôme du Goûter glacier (Mont Blanc area) |
title_sort |
strong changes in englacial temperatures despite insignificant changes in ice thickness at dôme du goûter glacier (mont blanc area) |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473/document https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473/file/tc-14-925-2020.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-925-2020 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(69.468,69.468,-49.461,-49.461) |
geographic |
Mont Blanc |
geographic_facet |
Mont Blanc |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_source |
ISSN: 1994-0424 EISSN: 1994-0416 The Cryosphere https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473 The Cryosphere, 2020, 14, pp.925-934. ⟨10.5194/tc-14-925-2020⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/tc-14-925-2020 insu-03706473 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473/document https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03706473/file/tc-14-925-2020.pdf BIBCODE: 2020TCry.14.925V doi:10.5194/tc-14-925-2020 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-925-2020 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
925 |
op_container_end_page |
934 |
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1766216356029530112 |