Six Decades of Glacial Mass Loss in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
The Canadian Arctic Archipelago comprises multiple small glaciers and ice caps, mostly concentrated on Ellesmere and Baffin Islands in the northern (NCAA, Northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago) and southern parts (SCAA, Southern Canadian Arctic Archipelago) of the archipelago, respectively. Because t...
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ftunivutrecht:oai:dspace.library.uu.nl:1874/367915 2023-11-12T04:00:07+01:00 Six Decades of Glacial Mass Loss in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago Noël, Brice Berg, Willem Jan Lhermitte, Stef Wouters, Bert Schaffer, Nicole Broeke, Michiel R. Sub Dynamics Meteorology Marine and Atmospheric Research 2018-06 image/pdf https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/367915 en eng 2169-9011 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/367915 info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess Canadian Arctic SMB mass loss ice caps firn Article 2018 ftunivutrecht 2023-11-01T23:17:34Z The Canadian Arctic Archipelago comprises multiple small glaciers and ice caps, mostly concentrated on Ellesmere and Baffin Islands in the northern (NCAA, Northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago) and southern parts (SCAA, Southern Canadian Arctic Archipelago) of the archipelago, respectively. Because these glaciers are small and show complex geometries, current regional climate models, using 5- to 20-km horizontal resolution, do not properly resolve surface mass balance patterns. Here we present a 58-year (1958–2015) reconstruction of daily surface mass balance of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, statistically downscaled to 1 km from the output of the regional climate model RACMO2.3 at 11 km. By correcting for biases in elevation and ice albedo, the downscaling method significantly improves runoff estimates over narrow outlet glaciers and isolated ice fields. Since the last two decades, NCAA and SCAA glaciers have experienced warmer conditions (+1.1°C) resulting in continued mass loss of 28.2 ± 11.5 and 22.0 ± 4.5 Gt/year, respectively, more than doubling (11.9 Gt/year) and doubling (11.9 Gt/year) the pre-1996 average. While the interior of NCAA ice caps can still buffer most of the additional melt, the lack of a perennial firn area over low-lying SCAA glaciers has caused uninterrupted mass loss since the 1980s. In the absence of significant refreezing capacity, this indicates inevitable disappearance of these highly sensitive glaciers. Article in Journal/Newspaper albedo Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago Utrecht University Repository Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Utrecht University Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivutrecht |
language |
English |
topic |
Canadian Arctic SMB mass loss ice caps firn |
spellingShingle |
Canadian Arctic SMB mass loss ice caps firn Noël, Brice Berg, Willem Jan Lhermitte, Stef Wouters, Bert Schaffer, Nicole Broeke, Michiel R. Six Decades of Glacial Mass Loss in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
topic_facet |
Canadian Arctic SMB mass loss ice caps firn |
description |
The Canadian Arctic Archipelago comprises multiple small glaciers and ice caps, mostly concentrated on Ellesmere and Baffin Islands in the northern (NCAA, Northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago) and southern parts (SCAA, Southern Canadian Arctic Archipelago) of the archipelago, respectively. Because these glaciers are small and show complex geometries, current regional climate models, using 5- to 20-km horizontal resolution, do not properly resolve surface mass balance patterns. Here we present a 58-year (1958–2015) reconstruction of daily surface mass balance of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, statistically downscaled to 1 km from the output of the regional climate model RACMO2.3 at 11 km. By correcting for biases in elevation and ice albedo, the downscaling method significantly improves runoff estimates over narrow outlet glaciers and isolated ice fields. Since the last two decades, NCAA and SCAA glaciers have experienced warmer conditions (+1.1°C) resulting in continued mass loss of 28.2 ± 11.5 and 22.0 ± 4.5 Gt/year, respectively, more than doubling (11.9 Gt/year) and doubling (11.9 Gt/year) the pre-1996 average. While the interior of NCAA ice caps can still buffer most of the additional melt, the lack of a perennial firn area over low-lying SCAA glaciers has caused uninterrupted mass loss since the 1980s. In the absence of significant refreezing capacity, this indicates inevitable disappearance of these highly sensitive glaciers. |
author2 |
Sub Dynamics Meteorology Marine and Atmospheric Research |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Noël, Brice Berg, Willem Jan Lhermitte, Stef Wouters, Bert Schaffer, Nicole Broeke, Michiel R. |
author_facet |
Noël, Brice Berg, Willem Jan Lhermitte, Stef Wouters, Bert Schaffer, Nicole Broeke, Michiel R. |
author_sort |
Noël, Brice |
title |
Six Decades of Glacial Mass Loss in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
title_short |
Six Decades of Glacial Mass Loss in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
title_full |
Six Decades of Glacial Mass Loss in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
title_fullStr |
Six Decades of Glacial Mass Loss in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
title_full_unstemmed |
Six Decades of Glacial Mass Loss in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
title_sort |
six decades of glacial mass loss in the canadian arctic archipelago |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/367915 |
geographic |
Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
genre |
albedo Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
op_relation |
2169-9011 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/367915 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
_version_ |
1782341842890653696 |