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14 September 2022
Freemanbreen, Svalbard Retreat Leads to Island Formation
Freemanbreen in 1990 and 2022 Landsat images. Both are years with limited retained snowcover (S) and some area of retained firn (F). The glacier has retreated from a new island that had formed at Point D. At Point A-C glacier melt and resultant thinning has exposed and expanded bedrock areas. Freemanbreen is the primary southern outlet glacier of the icecap that dominates Barentsøya, Svlabard. Here we examine Landsat imagery from …
29 August 2022
Edgeøya, Svalbard Ice Caps Snow Free in 2022; Fragmentation Ongoing
Langjokulen (La), Kvitisen (Kv), Bergfonna (Be) and Blaisen (Bl) ice caps on Edgeøya in Landsat images from 1990 and 2022. Two years of excepational melt where the ice caps lost all of their snow cover. Here the changes in the ice caps are reviwed at Points A-J. Edgeøya, Svalbard is ~40% ice covered had a number of ice caps some reaching tidewater and others in the interior (Dowdeswell and Bamber …
9 June 2022
Hayesbreen, Svalbard Retreat Generating Separation
Hayesbreen (HB), Heuglinbreen (HE) and Konigsbergbreen (KB) terminating in Mohnbutka (M) in 2002 and 2021 Landsat imagery. Retreat to Point E, and reduction in connection at Point B is evident and distance from Point A to the terminus. Hayesbreen, Heuglinbreen and Konigsbergbreen merge forming a single tidewater front in Mohnbutka on the east coast of Svalbard. Here we examine the retreat of this glacier system and ongoing separation of Hayesbreen …
16 August 2020
Mendeleevbreen/Øydebreen, Svalbard Terminus Retreat and Snowline Rise
Øydebreen (O) and Mendeleevbreen (M) in 2002 and 2020 Landsat images. Red arrow is the 1990/2002 terminus, yellow arrow the 2020 terminus and purple dots the snowline. Øydebreen and Mendeleevbreen are a pair of glaciers in Sørkapp Land, Svalbard that a share a divide. Mendeleevbreen flows north to Hornsund and Øydebreen south to Isbutka, meeting at the ice divide at 300 m. The Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy have maintained …
10 July 2020
Harrietbreen, Svalbard Retreats From Coast Loses Accumulation Zone
Harrietbreen (H) and Kjerulfbreen (K) in 1990 and 2020 Landsat images. Red arrow 1990 terminus, yellow arrow 2020 terminus and purple dots the snowline. No snow on Harrietbreen in early July 2020. Point 1 and 2 are divides between glaciers. Harrietbreen is small glacier that feeds into Trygghamna a small fjord the is part of the large Isfjorden on the east coast of Svalbard, mergin with Kjerulfbreen near the terminus. …
11 December 2019
Austre Torellbreen, Svalbard Retreat and Nunatak Expansion
Austre Torellbreen in 2000 and 2019 Landsat images. Red arrow is the 2000 terminus location, yellow arrow the 2019 terminus location. Point 1,2 and 3 are nunatak areas that are expanding. Austre Torellbreen is an outlet glacier on the southwest coast of Svalbard. It is just west of calving glacier that are retreating such as Paierbreen and Samarinbreen and adjacent to the land terminating Nannbreen. Blaszczyk et al (2008) report …
23 September 2019
Orsabreen, Svalbard Retreat leads to Lake Tripling in Size
Response of Orasbreen (O), Glopeken (G) and Holmstrombreen (H) to climate change as indicated by 1995 and 2019 Landsat images. Red arrow is 1995 terminus, yellow arrow 2019 terminus, pink arrows a deepening supraglacial stream channel and purple dots the snowline. Orsabreen terminates in an expansing prolgacial lake, Trebrevatnet, that is shared with a glacier it has separated from Holmstrombreen. The glacier shares an accumulation zone with Kronebreen, a glacier …
20 June 2019
Arnesenbreen, Svalbard Retreat, Separation and Surge
Arnesenbreen (A) and Bereznikovbreen (B) in 1990 and 2018 Landsat images. Red arrow is 1990 terminus location, yellow arrow the 2018 terminus location and purple dots the transient snowline. Arnesenbreen and Bereznikovbreen are glaciers in Svalbard on the east coast of Spitsbergen that in 1990 had a joint calving front near Kapp Murchison. Blaszczyk et al’s (2009) analysis identified 163 Svalbard glaciers that are tidewater with the total length calving …
22 December 2018
Gandbreen Retreat and Lake Expansion, Svalbard
Gandbreen in 1990 and 2018 Landsat images. The red arrow indicates 1990 terminus location, yellow arrows the 2018 terminus location, and purple arrow a location where bedrock emerges. Gandbreen is a western outlet of the Edgeøya Ice Cap, Svalbard. This is a surging glacier, that has not had an observed surge. Deltabreen a larger adjacent glacier to the south has no observed either. Strozzi et al (2017) noted that the western outlet …
9 March 2018
Aavatsmarkbreen, Svalbard More Calving & Less Accumulation a Deadly Recipe
Aavatsmarkbreen, Svalbard in 1987 and 2017 Landsat images. Red arrow 1987 terminus, yellow arrow 2017 terminus and purple dots the snowline. Aavatsmarkbreen is a tidewater glacier on the west side of Svalbard. The glacier is the fjord just south of Kongsfjord and Kronebreen Glacier. Nuth et al (2013) determined that the glacier area over the entire archipelago has decreased by an average of 80 km2 per year over the past 30 years, a …
9 November 2017
Storbreen, Svalbard Major Retreat Opens New Fjord
Storbreen, Svalbard in 1990 and 2017 Landsat images. The red arrows indicate 1990 terminus , yellow arrow the 2017 terminus and purple dots the snowline in 1990. A recent snow storm has obscured the actual snowline in Aug 2017. Storbreen Glacier (ST) terminates on the north side of Hornsund in southern Svalbard. From 1990 to 2017 Storbreen has experienced a substantial retreat opening a new fjord and separating from Hornbreen …
29 June 2017
Monacobreen Separates from Seligerbreen, Svalbard
Monacobreen Separation from Seligerbreen in 1999 and 2016 Landsat images. The red arrow is the 1999 terminus location and yellow arrow the 2016 terminus location. Moancobreen is a glacier that terminates at the head of Liefdefjorden , a branch of Woodfjorden in Spitsbergen, Svalbard. NW Spitsbergen is a region that has experienced extensive long term glacier thinning from 1965 to 2007 (Nuth et al, 2010). Svalbard is host to 163 tidewater glaciers with …
22 May 2017
Besselsbreen Retreat Glacier Wide Thinning , Svalbard
Besselsbreen (B) and Augnebreen (A) comparison in a 1990 and 2016 Landsat image. Red arrows indicate terminus position in 1990, yellow arrow indicates terminus in 2016, purple arrows indicate locations of upglacier thinning from 1990 to 2016 and the yellow line indicates the width of the tongue on the eastern side of Besselsbreen to the medial moraine with Augnebreen Besselsbreen Glacier flows north to tidewater from the Barents Icecap on Barentsoya …
18 May 2017
Hinlopenbreen, Svalbard 7 km Retreat 1990-2016.
Hinlopenbreen, Svalbard in 1990 and 2016 Landsat imagery. red arrow is 1990 terminus, yellow arrow is 2016 terminus,and Oslobreen is noted by Point O Hinlopenbreen is a large tidewater glacier in northern Svalbard. The glacier has a periodic history of surging, with the last surge occurring in 1970 (Nuth et al 2010). The glacier has the largest negative balance of -0.58 m/year from 1965-2005 (Nuth et al 2010). The …
20 December 2016
Has Fridtjovbreen, Svalbard Surged for the last time?
Fidtjovbreen, Svalbard comparison in 1998 and 2016 Landsat imagery. Red arrow marks the 1998 terminus, yellow arrow the 2016 terminus and purple dots mark the snowline. The Yellow numbers indicate area of separation between glaciers. Pink arrows indicate areas on the upper glacier where thinning is exposing more bedrock. F=Fridtjovbreen, S=Sagabreen, G=Gronfjordbreen Fridtjovbreen, Svalbard, is a tidewater-terminating glacier that started a 7-year surge advance during the 1990’s. This central Spitsbergen …
16 May 2016
Frostisen Ice Cap Svalbard, Ongoing Defrosting 1990-2015
Frostisen Ice Cap in 1990 and 2015 Landsat images. Red arrow is the 1990 terminus location, yellow arrow the 2015 terminus location. Purple arrows indicate thinning on the upper margin of the ice cap, and the letter A indicates an outcrop of rock emerging through the ice. Frostisen is an ice cap in Dickson Land of Central Svalbard. The World Glacier inventory of 1960 listed the area of the ice cap …
20 April 2016
Belopolskijbreen Retreat Generates Terminus Split, Svalbard
Belopolskijbreen comparison in 1990 and 2014 Landsat images. Red arrow is the 1990 terminus location, yellow the 2014 extent of the a bedrock ridge separating the two lobes of the glacier, and purple arrow an area of thinning at the head of the glacier. Most of the attention on Svalbard glaciers goes to the larger tidewater glaciers, which collectively having been losing volume rapidly. Belopolskijbreen in Sorkappland near the southern tip …
23 November 2015
Paierbreen Rapid Calving Retreat, Svalbard
1990 and 2014 Landsat images indicating Paierbreen (P), Muhlbacherbreen (MU) and Hansbreen (H). The red arrow and red dots indicate the 1990 terminus location and yellow arrows and yellow dots the 2014 terminus location. The purple arrow indicates the location of a supraglacial lake that was persistent in the 1990’s but is no longer evident in 2013, 2014 and 2015. From 1990 to 2014 all four of the glaciers terminating …
19 October 2015
Kronebreen and Kongsvegen, Svalbard Initiation of Glacier Separation 2015
Kronebreen terminus in 2013 (left) and 2015 (right), note the configuration change and separation initiation of Kronebreen and Kongsvegen at yellow arrow. Kronebreen is a large, (450 km2) tidewater glacier on the northwest coast of Svalbard terminating in a shared terminus with Kongsvegen at the head of Kongsfjorden. Changes in 2015 indicate the shared terminus will not continue. Luckman et al (2015) observed Kronebreen has a winter speed of 1.5–2 m/day, …
15 July 2015
Samarinbreen, Svalbard Rapid Retreat 1990-2014
Samarinbreen (SA) 1990 left, and 2014 right, Landsat image comparison. KO=Korberbreen, CH=Chomjakovbreen, ME=Mendeleevbreen Red arrows indicate 1990 terminus position, yellow arrows 2014 terminus. and purple dots the snowline. Samarinbreen terminated in a calving front in Samarinvagan, a bay on the southern side of Hornsund Fjord. Hornsund is a fjord that in 2015 almost cuts through the southern Island of Svalbard, due to the retreat of Hamberbergbreen and Hornbreen. The Institute of …
