You are browsing the archive for glacier mass balance Archives - From a Glacier's Perspective.
February 11, 2022
Firn Area Ratio an Emerging Metric for Glacier Mass Balance?
Columbia Glacier in 2015 viewed from the ridge above the glacier. The firn line is marked by blue dots. The age of the snow surface of 2015 and the firn surfaces of 2011-2014 are noted. For an alpine glacier to be in equilibrium at the end of summer the glacier needs to be 50-70% covered in snow from the previous winter. This is the accumulation area ratio (AAR). AAR is …
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 …
April 9, 2020
Rainbow Glacier Fieldwork 8-7-2018
The video is of a single day of field work on Rainbow Glacier on 8-7-2018. This was our 702nd day of fieldwork during the project that began in 1984. On this day the field team consisted of Mariama Dryak, Erin McConnell, Jill Pelto and Mauri Pelto. Rainbow Glacier is a valley glacier on the northeast flank of Mount Baker, a stratovolcano and the highest mountain in the North Cascade Range, …
July 29, 2019
36th Annual North Cascade Glacier Climate Project Field Season Begins
Fieldwork includes terminus surveys, glacier runoff measurement and mass balance measurements Field Season Begins August 1 Who we are? The North Cascade Glacier Climate Project (NCGCP) was founded in 1983 to identify the response of North Cascade glaciers to regional climate change, particularly changes in mass balance, glacier runoff and terminus behavior. This was prompted by the National Academy of Sciences listing this as a high priority and a personal …
August 20, 2018
35th Annual Field Season Monitoring North Cascade Glaciers Preliminary Assessment
We monitor the response of North Cascade glacier to climate change and the consequent impacts for water resources and the ecosystem, as illustrated here by Megan Pelto and Jill Pelto. For the 35th consecutive year I headed to the North Cascade Range, Washington to monitor the response of glaciers to climate change. During the course of this study we observed several of the glaciers we monitor disappear. Two of the …
August 1, 2018
Alpine Glacier-BAMS State of the Climate 2017
Global alpine glacier annual mass balance record of reference glaciers submitted to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, with 2017 continuing the trend of significant negative mass balance. The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: State of the Climate 2017 has been published. Since 2008 I have written the chapter on alpine glaciers. The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS)record of mass balance and terminus behavior (WGMS 2017) provides a global index …
August 14, 2017
Canadian Columbia River Basin Winter 2016-2017: A Late Rally
Guest Post by Ben Pelto, PhD Candidate, UNBC Geography, [email protected] As the summer ticks by and the fall glacier field season approaches, I’ve realized that I never put out a winter 2016-2017 synopsis, so, like the snowfall this year, it’s arrived late. May 2017, Jesse Milner of the ACMG on the Nordic Glacier in front of the “meteor strike” a newly exposed rock face that spalls ice regularly. Photo by …
February 17, 2017
State of Alpine Glaciers in 2016-Negative for 37th Consecutive Year
Figure 1. Global Alpine glacier annual mass balance record of reference glaciers submitted to the World Glacier Monitoring Service. Each year I write the section of the BAMS State of the Climate on Alpine Glaciers. What follows is the initial draft of that with a couple of added images and an added paragraph. The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) record of mass balance and terminus behavior (WGMS, 2015) provides a …
January 12, 2017
Recent Climate Change Impacts on Mountain Glaciers – Volume
Landsat Image of glaciers examined in the Himalaya Range: Chapter 10 that straddles a portion of Sikkim, Nepal and Tibet, China. Notice the number that end in expanding proglacial lakes. This January a book I authored has been published by Wiley. The goal of this volume is to tell the story, glacier by glacier, of response to climate change from 1984-2015. Of the 165 glaciers examined in 10 different alpine …
December 28, 2016
Canadian Columbia Basin Glacier Fall 2016 Field Season
Guest Post by Ben Pelto, PhD Candidate, UNBC Geography, [email protected] Figure 1. An illustration of the glacier mass balance sum. Mass balance is equal to the amount of snow accumulation and the amount of ice melt over time. Traditionally, this is reported as annual mass balance (how much mass a glacier gained or lost in a particular year) and is reported in meters water equivalent (mwe). The Columbia Basin Glacier …
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.