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July 29, 2022
NORTH CASCADE GLACIER CLIMATE PROJECT 2022-39th Annual Field Program
Mount Baker camp for Rainbow and Sholes Glacier (Illustration by Megan Pelto) Science Director: Mauri S. Pelto, [email protected] Art Director: Jill Pelto, [email protected] 2022 Field Season: For the 39th consecutive summer we are heading into the field to measure and communicate the impact of climate change on North Cascade glaciers. We will complete detailed measurements on 10 glaciers, three of which are part of the World Glacier Monitoring Service reference glacier network …
July 28, 2020
NORTH CASCADE GLACIER CLIMATE PROJECT 2020-37th Annual Field Program
Field season images from 2019 indicating crevasse stratigraphy, annotated by Clara Deck. Director: Mauri S. Pelto, [email protected] College Field Artist & Scientist: Jill Pelto, [email protected] Who we are? 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. NCGCP is a field project that has a broader interdisciplinary scope and examines more glaciers than any …
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 22, 2016
Looking Inside a Glacier
Here we provide a visual look inside a glacier in the North Cascades of Washington. Glaciers are not all the same, but the key internal ingredients in summer typically are in varied ratios: ice, meltwater, sediment and biologic material. In this case there are torrents of water pouring through the interior of the glacier, generated at the surface the day we are filming. We do measure the discharge and velocity …
August 20, 2015
Disastrous Year for North Cascade Glacier Mass Balance (Snow/Ice Economy)
Mass loss of North Cascade glaciers visualized. A disastrous year is unfolding in 2015 for North Cascade glaciers, if normal melt conditions continue the range will lose 5-7% of its entire glacier volume in one year! For the 32nd consecutive year we were in the North Cascade Range, of Washington to observe the mass balance of glaciers across the entire mountain range. The melt season is not over, but …
August 2, 2015
Embarking on the 32nd Annual North Cascade Glacier Climate Project
Sholes Glacier snowcover Aug. 5, 2013 (Jill Pelto) and Sholes Glacier July 23, 2015 (Oliver Grah) For the 32nd straight summer we will be investigating North Cascade glaciers and their response to climate change over the next three weeks (that means no new posts until Aug. 20). In 1984 the program was initiated to study the impacts of climate change across an entire mountain range, instead of on just one glacier. …
April 23, 2015
Sholes Glacier, Washington: Measuring Annual Glacier Mass Balance
Annual mass balance is the difference between ice and snow added to the glacier via accumulation and snow and ice lost via ablation and in some cases calving. Alpine glacier mass balance is the most accurate indicator of glacier response to climate and along with the worldwide retreat of alpine glaciers is one of the clearest signals of ongoing climate change (WGMS,2010). For 25 consecutive years we (North Cascade Glacier Climate …
September 1, 2013
North Cascade Glacier Climate Project 2013 Field Report
The 2013 winter season provided close to average snowpack in the North Cascades as indicated by the average SWE at SNOtel stations in the range. The summer melt season has proved to be long, warm and dry. The May-August mean temperature at the station closest to a glacier, Lyman Lake, has been tied for the 2nd warmest in the last 25 years with 2009 and only 2004 warmer. The summer …
August 1, 2011
28th Field Season of the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project 8-1 to 8-20
During the interval of 8-1 to 8-20 there will be no blog updates, we will be in the field for the entire period. This is the 28th consecutive year we will monitoring the terminus behavior and mass balance of these glaciers identifying how they respond to climate change. In these 28 years all the glaciers have retreated significantly they have lost 20% of their volume and two of the glaciers …
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.