You are browsing the archive for glacier climate change Archives - From a Glacier's Perspective.
February 14, 2024
New URL Same Weekly Observations of Glacier Response To Climate Change
For a decade I have chronicled glacier change in a weekly post as part of the AGU Blogosphere. I typically examine a specific glacier or field area. shairng my specific observations of the glaciers in the images presented, usually the key changes have happened in the last few months, with reference to relevant literature. When I joined the AGU Blogosphere in 2014 I had been blogging for five years with …
February 2, 2023
Burroughs Glacier, Alaska Down to Last 1%
Burroughs Glacier in 1986 and 2022 Landsat images. The red arrow marks the west margin and the yellow arrow the east margin in 1986. Yellow dots mark the outline of the glacier in 2022. Glacier area declined from 12.5 km² to 1.5 km² during this 36 year period. Burroughs Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska has been retreating without pause since 1892 when it was part of the Muir …
November 22, 2022
Suru Basin, Ladakh India Glaciers Bare of Snowcover in August 2022
Suru Basin glaciers in 1998 and 2022 Landsat images. Red arrow marks the 1998 terminus location, yellow arrow the 2022 terminus location. S=Shafat Glacier, D=Dilung Glacier. Glacier 1-4 are unnamed glaciers that lost almost all snowcover in 2022. Glaciers of the Suru Basin, draining the Ladakh Range, a drier region of the Himalaya, was significantly by the 2022 pre-monsoon and monsoon season warmth. Here we focus on a group of …
August 31, 2022
Alpine Glaciers Section-State of the Climate 2021
The 32nd annual State of the Climate report was published today. For the 14th year I have written the Alpine Glacier section chronicling their response for the the hydrological 2020/21 utilizing the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) data sets. WGMS reference glaciers (30+ years of continuous observation) experienced a mass balance loss of -900 mm w.e., compared to -700 mm w.e. in 2019/20. From 1970-2021 the eight most negative mass …
August 26, 2022
Whitney Glacier, Mount Shasta snow free again in 2022
Whitney Glacier on August 25, 2022 in Sentinel image. Green arrows separation points, yellow arrows remaining snowpack The summer of 2021 proved to be catastrophic for Whitney Glacier on Mount Shasta, California in terms of volume loss, ~15% leading to long term impacts, such as the 50% area reduction and 1000 m retreat since 2005. The glacier lost 100% of its 2021 snowpack and was in the process of separating …
May 5, 2022
Alpine Glacier Incompatibality with Heat Waves
Heat waves and glaciers don’t usually go together; however, in the last several years an increasing number of heat waves have affected alpine glacier regions around the world. This is true from Arctic Canada to the Himalayas from the Andes to Alaska. Here we review a number of these heat waves from 2018-2022, that I have been involved with assessing and observing. In particular heat waves leave a greater portion …
April 18, 2022
A 50-year Project on Columbia Glacier Annual Monitoring 1984-2022, 39 Years In
1984-Landsat 5 is launched. The North Cascade Glacier Climate Project was initiated on Earth Day in 1984 with a goal of observing the impact of climate change on glaciers across this mountain range for 50 years. This was in response to a call to action by the National Academy of Sciences to have a project that monitored glaciers across an entire mountain range in the United States, and from climate …
September 28, 2021
Kokanee Glacier 2021: slash and burn
By Ben Pelto, PhD, UBC Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Research Fellow Since 2013 I have been working on the Kokanee Glacier. Located just outside of Nelson in southeastern British Columbia (BC), the Kokanee Glacier is due north of the Washington-Idaho border. This work began as part of a five-year study of the cryosphere in the Canadian portion of the Columbia River. This project was carried out by the Canadian Columbia River …
August 29, 2021
Whitney Glacier , Mount Shasta Losing all of its Snowcover and Separating in 2021
Sentinel 2 False and True Color images from 8-25-2021. Yellow arrows indicate where glacier is separating and blue arrows the small remanent of 2021 snowpack remaining. This remanent will not last to the end of the melt season. The summer of 2021 is proving to be catastrophic for Whitney Glacier on Mount Shasta, California in terms of volume loss, ~15-20% this year leading to long term impacts, adding to the …
April 13, 2021
Benito Glacier, Chile 2021 Calving Event Drives Further Retreat
Benito Glacier in 2000 and 2021 Landsat images. Locations 1-6 are current or former distributary terminus locations. Red arrow is the 2000 terminus location and yellow arrow the 2021 terminus location. A small cloud is obscuring an iceberg near terminus. Purple dots are the snowline. Benito Glacier is a temperate outlet glacier on the west side of the North Patagonian Icefield terminating in an expanding lake. The glacier is …
Dean of Academic Affairs at Nichols College and Professor of Environmental Science at Nichols College in Massachusetts since 1989. Glaciologist directing the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project since 1984. This project monitors the mass balance and behavior of more glaciers than any other in North America.