Regional and global volumes of glaciers derived from statistical upscaling of glacier inventory data

Radić, Valentina; Hock, Regine

doi:10.1029/2009jf001373

Cited by 268 publications

(285 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…We can absolve this issue somewhat through the use of methods to approximate GIC volumes from their area which is much more straight-forward compared with estimating volumes via remote sensing. Multiple studies exist that provide scaling relationships to estimate GIC volume from area, such as Radić and Hock [2010] and Huss and Farinotti [2012]. Despite limitations in primarily employing empirical trends, we adopted the approach of Huss and Farinotti [2012] to estimate a volume distribution of GIC based on area information from the RGI.…”

Section: Glaciers and Ice Capsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contribution of glacial isostatic adjustment to projections of sea‐level change along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America

et al. 2016

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We determine the contribution of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) to future relative sea-level change for the North American coastline between Newfoundland and Texas. We infer GIA model parameters using recently compiled and quality-assessed databases of past sea-level changes, including new databases for the United States Gulf Coast and Atlantic Canada. At 13 cities along this coastline, we estimate the GIA contribution to range from a few centimeters (e.g., 3 [−1 to 9] cm Miami) to a few decimeters (e.g., 18 [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] cm, Halifax) for the period 2085-2100 relative to 2006-2015 (1− ranges given). We provide estimates of uncertainty in the GIA component using two different methods; the more conservative approach produces total ranges (1− confidence) that vary from 3 to 16 cm for the cities considered. Contributions from ocean steric and dynamic changes as well as those from changes in land ice are also estimated to provide context for the GIA projections. When summing the contributions from all three processes at the 13 cities considered along this coastline, using median or best-estimate values, the GIA signal comprises 5-38% of the total depending on the adopted climate forcing and location. The contributions from ocean dynamic/steric changes and ice mass loss are similar in amplitude but with spatial variation that approximately cancels, resulting in GIA dominating the net spatial variability north of 35 ∘ N.

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Section: Glaciers and Ice Capsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contribution of glacial isostatic adjustment to projections of sea‐level change along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America

et al. 2016

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“…Currently, regional glacier mass change can be estimated from (a) groundbased measurements (Radić and Hock, 2010), (b) anomalies in regional gravity fields (Arendt et al, 2009;Jacob et al, 2012), (c) empirical models (Radić and Hock, 2011), (d) distributed mass balance models (Machguth et al, 2009), and (e) geodetic measurements (Schiefer et al, 2007;Tennant et al, 2012). However, these approaches may be limited in terms of either spatial or temporal resolution, or both.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An approach to derive regional snow lines and glacier mass change from MODIS imagery, western North America

et al. 2013

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Abstract. We describe a method to calculate regional snow line elevations and annual equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) from daily MODIS imagery (MOD02QKM) on large glaciers and icefields in western North America. An automated cluster analysis of the cloud-masked visible and near-infrared bands at 250 m resolution is used to delineate glacier facies (snow and ice) for ten glacierized regions between 2000-2011. For each region and season, the maximum observed value of the 20th percentile of snowcovered pixels (Z S(20) ) is used to define a regional ELA proxy (ELA est ). Our results indicate significant increases in the regional ELA proxy at two continental sites (Peyto Glacier and Gulkana Glacier) over the period of observation, though no statistically significant trends are identified at other sites. To evaluate the utility of regional ELA proxies derived from MOD02QKM imagery, we compare standard geodetic estimates of glacier mass change with estimates derived from historical mass balance gradients and observations of Z S(20) at three large icefields. Our approach yields estimates of mass change that more negative than traditional geodetic approaches, though MODIS-derived estimates are within the margins of error at all three sites. Both estimates of glacier mass change corroborate the continued mass loss of glaciers in western North America. Between 2000 and 2009, the geodetic change approach yields mean annual rates of surface elevation change for the Columbia, Lillooet, and Sittakanay icefields of −0.29 ± 0.05, −0.26 ± 0.05, and −0.63 ± 0.17 m a −1 , respectively. This study provides a new technique for glacier facies detection at daily timescales, and contributes to the development of regional estimates of glacier mass change, both of which are critical for studies of glacier contributions to streamflow and global sea level rise.

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“…We sort the remaining 17 regions into 14 regions as shown in Table 1. Using these 14 regions of Z97 facilitates a comparison of Radić and Hock (2010) data with the second glacier inventory. The total area in the Radić and Hock (2010) data set is 568 709 km 2 .…”

Section: Two Glacier Inventoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of the remaining 17 regions, 7 regions have an incomplete glacier inventory. To complete these regions, an upscaling procedure is performed as described in Radić and Hock (2010). Then, to obtain the new number of glaciers per size bin, we divide the upscaled area by the average area in the size bin before upscaling.…”

Section: Two Glacier Inventoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first and default glacier inventory is an extended version of the WGI-XF (Cogley, 2009a), which has a World Glacier Inventory core (WGI, National Snow andIce Data Center, 1999, updated 2009), and is combined with Icelandic and Alaskan data (Radić and Hock, 2010). The GIC are divided into 19 large regions, of which two are located around Antarctica.…”

Section: Two Glacier Inventoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An assessment of uncertainties in using volume-area modelling for computing the twenty-first century glacier contribution to sea-level change

Slangen

Wal

2011

The Cryosphere

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Abstract.A large part of present-day sea-level change is formed by the melt of glaciers and ice caps (GIC). This study focuses on the uncertainties in the calculation of the GIC contribution on a century timescale. The model used is based on volume-area scaling, combined with the mass balance sensitivity of the GIC. We assess different aspects that contribute to the uncertainty in the prediction of the contribution of GIC to future sea-level rise, such as (1) the volume-area scaling method (scaling factor), (2) the glacier data, (3) the climate models, and (4) the emission scenario. Additionally, a comparison of the model results to the 20th century GIC contribution is presented.We find that small variations in the scaling factor cause significant variations in the initial volume of the glaciers, but only limited variations in the glacier volume change. If two existing glacier inventories are tuned such that the initial volume is the same, the GIC sea-level contribution over 100 yr differs by 0.027 m or 18 %. It appears that the mass balance sensitivity is also important: variations of 20 % in the mass balance sensitivity have an impact of 17 % on the resulting sea-level projections. Another important factor is the choice of the climate model, as the GIC contribution to sea-level change largely depends on the temperature and precipitation taken from climate models. Connected to this is the choice of emission scenario, used to drive the climate models. Combining all the uncertainties examined in this study leads to a total uncertainty of 0.052 m or 35 % in the GIC contribution to global mean sea level. Reducing the variance in the climate models and improving the glacier inventories will sigCorrespondence to: A. B. A. Slangen (a.slangen@uu.nl) nificantly reduce the uncertainty in calculating the GIC contributions, and are therefore crucial actions to improve future sea-level projections.

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Regional and global volumes of glaciers derived from statistical upscaling of glacier inventory data

Cited by 268 publications

References 27 publications

The contribution of glacial isostatic adjustment to projections of sea‐level change along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America

The contribution of glacial isostatic adjustment to projections of sea‐level change along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America

An approach to derive regional snow lines and glacier mass change from MODIS imagery, western North America

An assessment of uncertainties in using volume-area modelling for computing the twenty-first century glacier contribution to sea-level change

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