Ice thickness measurements and volume estimates for glaciers in Norway

Andreassen, Liss M.; Huss, Matthias; Melvold, Kjetil; Elvehøy, Hallgeir; Winsvold, Solveig H.

doi:10.3189/2015jog14j161

Cited by 51 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(83 reference statements)

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“…Knowledge of glacier volume and spatial distribution is important for many applications, including contribution to sealevel rise and projections of future glacier runoff (Vaughan et al, 2013;Andreassen et al, 2015). The detailed measurements of ice-thickness of mountain glaciers are limited and ice volume is usually estimated using empirical relationships (Bahr et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Volume Changes of Elbrus Glaciers From 1997 to 2017

et al. 2019

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This study describes the analysis of changes in area and volume of the Mt.Elbrus glacier system, Central Caucasus from 1997 to 2017. It is based on helicopter-borne ice thickness measurements, comparison of high-resolution imagery and two digital elevation models (DEMs) with 10 m resolution. More than 250 km of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) profiles of ice thickness with reliable reflections were obtained. The total volume of Mt. Elbrus glaciers was 5.03 ± 0.85 km 3 of ice in 2017. Our results show that 68% of the total ice volume is concentrated below 4,000 m a.s.l. where the average ice thickness was 44.6 ± 7.3 m, 18% of the volume lies within 4,000-4,500 m a.s.l. (thickness of 41.2 ± 7.3 m), and just 14% lies above 4,500 m a.s.l. (thickness of 29.7 ± 6.7 m). The glacier-covered area of Mt. Elbrus decreased from 125.76 ± 0.65 km 2 in 1997 to 112.20 ± 0.58 km 2 in 2017, a reduction of 10.8%. Over the same period the volume decreased by 22.8%. The mass balance of the Elbrus glaciers decreased by −0.55 ± 0.04 m w.e. a −1 from 1997 to 2017. Mass balance on west-oriented glaciers is less negative than on east-and south-oriented glaciers where mass balance is most negative. The mass balance of the east-oriented Djikiugankez glacier decreased at the fastest average rate (−0.97 ± 0.07 m w.e. a −1 ). This glacier contains 28% of the total Elbrus glacier system ice volume, most of which is concentrated below 4,000 m a.s.l. Only one small glacier on the western slope demonstrated mass gain. Our results match well with the long term direct mass balance measurements on the Garabashi glacier on Elbrus which lost 12.58 m w.e. and 12.92 ± 0.95 m w.e. between 1997 and 2017 estimated by glaciological and geodetic method, respectively. The rate of Elbrus glacier mass loss tripled in 1997-2017 compared with the 1957-1997 period.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Volume Changes of Elbrus Glaciers From 1997 to 2017

et al. 2019

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“…Glacier inventory data are used for modeling glacier mass balance (e.g., Marzeion et al, 2012;Radić and Hock, 2013), estimating ice volumes (e.g., Huss and Farinotti, 2012;Grinsted, 2013;Andreassen et al, 2014), or predicting global sea level rise (e.g., Leclercq et al, 2011;Gregory et al, 2013). Despite Norway's long tradition of monitoring glaciers, there are still few data available on spatiotemporal change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glacier area and length changes in Norway from repeat inventories

2014

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Abstract. In this study, we assess glacier area and length changes in mainland Norway from repeat Landsat TM/ETM+-derived inventories and digitized topographic maps. The multi-temporal glacier inventory consists of glacier outlines from three time ranges: 1947 to 1985 (GI n50 ), 1988 to 1997 (GI 1990), and 1999 to 2006 (GI 2000. For the northernmost regions, we include an additional inventory (GI 1900 ) based on historic maps surveyed between 1895 and 1907. Area and length changes are assessed per glacier unit, 36 subregions, and for three main parts of Norway: southern, central, and northern. The results show a decrease in the glacierized area from 2994 km 2 in GI n50 to 2668 km 2 in GI 2000 (total 2722 glacier units), corresponding to an area reduction of −326 km 2 , or −11 % of the initial GI n50 area. The average length change for the full epoch (within GI n50 and GI 2000 ) is −240 m. Overall, the comparison reveals both area and length reductions as general patterns, even though some glaciers have advanced. The three northernmost subregions show the highest retreat rates, whereas the central part of Norway shows the lowest change rates. Glacier area and length changes indicate that glaciers in maritime areas in southern Norway have retreated more than glaciers in the interior, and glaciers in the north have retreated more than southern glaciers. These observed spatial trends in glacier change are related to a combination of several factors such as glacier geometry, elevation, and continentality, especially in southern Norway.

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“…These glacier outlines were obtained from the Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI version 5.0; Pfeffer et al, 2014) and from NVE (Winsvold et al, 2014;Andreassen et al, 2012). The glacier outlines were also used in combination with ice thickness data to define the volume of the glaciers.…”

Section: Glaciological Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The information on distributed ice thickness of the glaciers from the maps was used for the dynamic glacier area modelling. For the Wolverine glacier, the ice thickness data of Huss and Farinotti (2012), and for the Nigardsbreen glacier the data of Andreassen et al (2015) were used.…”

Section: Glaciological Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…by multiplying with the ratio of the densities from ice to water (0.917). The adjustment of the glacier profile to another glacier extent was done based on volume-area scaling (Bahr et al, 1997;Andreassen et al, 2015) to calculate the needed increase in ice thickness/water equivalent to match the new volume based on the new largest glacier extent. When the largest glacier extent did not occur at the beginning of the simulation period, an initial glacier fraction was defined in the glacier profile which was also calculated with the volume-area scaling method.…”

Section: Model Set-upmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of glacier changes and threshold definition in the characterisation of future streamflow droughts in glacierised catchments

Tiel

Teuling

Wanders

et al. 2018

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Glaciers are essential hydrological reservoirs, storing and releasing water at various timescales. Short-term variability in glacier melt is one of the causes of streamflow droughts, here defined as deficiencies from the flow regime. Streamflow droughts in glacierised catchments have a wide range of interlinked causing factors related to precipitation and temperature on short and long timescales. Climate change affects glacier storage capacity, with resulting consequences for discharge regimes and streamflow drought. Future projections of streamflow drought in glacierised basins can, however, strongly depend on the modelling strategies and analysis approaches applied. Here, we examine the effect of different approaches, concerning the glacier modelling and the drought threshold, on the characterisation of streamflow droughts in glacierised catchments. Streamflow is simulated with the Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV-light) model for two case study catchments, the Nigardsbreen catchment in Norway and the Wolverine catchment in Alaska, and two future climate change scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). Two types of glacier modelling are applied, a constant and dynamic glacier area conceptualisation. Streamflow droughts are identified with the variable threshold level method and their characteristics are compared between two periods, a historical and future (2071-2100) period. Two existing threshold approaches to define future droughts are employed: (1) the threshold from the historical period; (2) a transient threshold approach, whereby the threshold adapts every year in the future to the changing regimes. Results show that drought characteristics differ among the combinations of glacier area modelling and thresholds. The historical threshold combined with a dynamic glacier area projects extreme increases in drought severity in the future, caused by the regime shift due to a reduction in glacier area. The historical threshold combined with a constant glacier area results in a drastic decrease of the number of droughts. The drought characteristics between future and historical periods are more similar when the transient threshold is used, for both glacier area conceptualisations. With the transient threshold, factors causing future droughts can be analysed. This study revealed the different effects of methodological choices on future streamflow drought projections and it highlights how the options can be used to analyse different aspects of future droughts: the transient threshold for analysing future drought processes, the historical threshold to assess changes between periods, the constant glacier area to analyse the effect of short-term climate variability on droughts and the dynamic glacier area to model more realistic future discharges under climate change.

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Ice thickness measurements and volume estimates for glaciers in Norway

Cited by 51 publications

References 49 publications

Volume Changes of Elbrus Glaciers From 1997 to 2017

Volume Changes of Elbrus Glaciers From 1997 to 2017

Glacier area and length changes in Norway from repeat inventories

The role of glacier changes and threshold definition in the characterisation of future streamflow droughts in glacierised catchments

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