Arctic glacier snowline altitudes rise 150 m over the last 4 decades
Larocca, L., Lea, J. M., Erb, M. P., McKay, N. P., Phillips, M., et al. (2024). Arctic glacier snowline altitudes rise 150 m over the last 4 decades. The Cryosphere, doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3591-2024
| Title | Arctic glacier snowline altitudes rise 150 m over the last 4 decades |
|---|---|
| Genre | Article |
| Author(s) | Laura Larocca, J. M. Lea, M. P. Erb, N. P. McKay, M. Phillips, K. A. Lamantia, D. S. Kaufman |
| Abstract | The number of Arctic glaciers with direct, long-term measurements of mass balance is limited. Here we used satellite-based observations of the glacier snowline altitude (SLA), the location of the transition between snow cover and ice late in the summer, to approximate the position of the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA), a variable important for mass balance assessment and for understanding the response of glaciers to climate change. We mapped the snowline (SL) on a subset of 269 land-terminating glaciers above 60 degrees N latitude in the latest available summer, clear-sky Landsat satellite image between 1984 and 2022. The mean SLA was extracted using the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM). We compared the remotely observed SLA observations with available long-term field-based measurements of ELA and with ERA5-Land reanalysis climate data. Over the last 4 decades, Arctic glacier SLAs have risen an average of similar to 152 m (3.9 +/- 0.4 m yr(-1); R2=0.74, p |
| Publication Title | The Cryosphere |
| Publication Date | Aug 15, 2024 |
| Publisher's Version of Record | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3591-2024 |
| OpenSky Citable URL | https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d71v5k74 |
| OpenSky Listing | View on OpenSky |
| CPAESS Affiliations | UCP, SPS |