Modeled and measured glacier change and related glaciological, hydrological, and meteorological conditions at South Cascade Glacier, Washington, balance and water years 2006 and 2007

Abstract

Relation that describes mass balance, in meters water equivalent, as either varies with glacier surface altitude, evaluated at altitude Z i x Symbol Meaning c Daily accumulation c  Accumulation rate c 0 Factor relating precipitation at a reference site to precipitation at a particular glacier site d 0 , d 1 Emperical coefficients DDF i Degree-day factor for ice melt DDF s Degree-day factor for snow and firn melt PDD Positive degree days m Slope of a rating curve segment on a logarithmic plot n Number of glacier altitude grid points p Discharge when the quantity (S-S 0) equals 1 P ref Daily precipitation at a reference site q Stream discharge S Water stage S 0 Stage of effective zero stream discharge T Daily average air temperature T 2 Daily average air temperature at 2-m height at a given mass balance site T crit Air temperature at and below which precipitation falls as snow

Impact of Recent Glacial Recession on Summer Streamflow in the Skagit River

“…All five monitored glaciers had significantly negative cumulative annual mass balance from 1959-2009 ( Figure 6; Bidlake et al 2010). From 1959 to 1979 the balance of all five glaciers was essentially neutral, and negative from 1979 to 2009.…”

“…Sources of error in the surface mass balance measurements were discussed in detail in Bidlake et al (2010) and Riedel et al (2008). Error in the measurement of summer melt (ablation) at the stakes was due to stake sinking and to estimates of the density and depth of snow and ice.…”

“…Methods are described further by Riedel et al (2008) for North Klawatti, Silver, Noisy, and Sandalee glaciers ( Figure 2). Krimmel (1996), Bidlake et al (2010) and Josberger et al (2007) provide summaries of data collected at South Cascade Glacier. Monitoring by the USGS began in 1957 (Meier 1958), while the NPS monitoring of the other four glaciers has been continuous since 1993 for three glaciers and since 1995 for Sandalee Glacier.…”

How Unusual Was 2015 in the 1984–2015 Period of the North Cascade Glacier Annual Mass Balance?

“…There was a mean annual range between the North Cascade glaciers of 0.8 m w.e., from the maximum Ba to the minimum Ba in a given year, but the inter-annual trend was the same for each glacier ( Table 2). This regional response was indicated by the high cross-correlation values of the Ba between individual glaciers, ranging from an r 2 of 0.80 to 0.98, between each glacier pair, including the South Cascade Glacier that was monitored by the USGS (Table 3) [2,30]. The data for 2013-2014 had not been finalized for the South Cascade Glacier, hence, the comparison period ended in 2012 for the cross correlation.…”

Melt water input from the Bering Glacier watershed into the Gulf of Alaska

“…Glacier melt is modeled exceptionally well by the MDD method, otherwise known as the temperature index method [ Ohmura , ; Hock , ; Bidlake et al ., ]. Ohmura [] shows that glacier and snow melt are dominated by the sensible heat flux and the short wave solar heat flux from the lower atmosphere.…”