Back to Search
Start Over
Irreversible mass loss of Canadian Arctic Archipelago glaciers
- Source :
- Geophysical Research Letters, 40, 870. Wiley Online Library, Geophysical Research Letters
- Publication Year :
- 2013
-
Abstract
- The Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) contains the largest volume of glacier ice on Earth outside of Antarctica and Greenland. In the absence of significant calving, CAA glacier mass balance is governed by the difference between surface snow accumulation and meltwater runoff—surface mass balance. Here we use a coupled atmosphere/snow model to simulate present-day and 21st century CAA glacier surface mass balance. Through comparison with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mass anomalies and in situ observations, we show that the model is capable of representing present-day CAA glacier mass loss, as well as the dynamics of the seasonal snow cover on the CAA tundra. Next, we force this model until 2100 with a moderate climate warming scenario (AR5 RCP4.5). We show that enhanced meltwater runoff from CAA glaciers is not sufficiently compensated by increased snowfall. Extrapolation of these results toward an AR5 multimodel ensemble results in sustained 21st century CAA glacier mass loss in the vast majority (>99%) of the ~7000 temperature realizations.
- Subjects :
- Glacier ice accumulation
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Global warming
0207 environmental engineering
Tidewater glacier cycle
Glacier
02 engineering and technology
Snow
01 natural sciences
Glacier mass balance
Geophysics
Arctic
13. Climate action
Climatology
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
020701 environmental engineering
Meltwater
Geology
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00948276
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Geophysical Research Letters, 40, 870. Wiley Online Library, Geophysical Research Letters
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c2483643ed63d0271c2327e30d32ae25