| Volumes and Issues Contents of Issue 2 |
www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/4/707/2010/
doi:10.5194/tcd-4-707-2010
© Author(s) 2010. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
The Northeast Asia mountain glaciers in the near future by AOGCM scenarios
1Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119017, Russia
2National Snow and Ice Data Center, CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 780309, USA
Abstract. We studied contrasting glacier systems in continental (Orulgan, Suntar-Khayata and Chersky ranges located in the Pole of Cold of Eurasia area at the contact of Atlantic and Pacific influences and maritime (Kamchatka Peninsula) – under Pacific influence. Our purpose is to present a simple projection method to asses the main parameters of these glacier regions under climate change. To achieve this, constructed vertical profiles of mass balance (accumulation and ablation) based both on meteorological data for 1950–90s and ECHAM4 for 2040–2069 are used, the latter – as a climatic scenario. Also for selected key glacier systems other models were applied for comparison. The observations and scenarios were used to define the recent and future equilibrium line altitude (ELA) and glacier termini elevation for each glacier system.
The altitudinal distributions of ice areas were determined for present and future, they were used for prediction of the elevation spreading of glaciers in the system taking into account the correlation between the ELA and glacier-termini level change. We tested two hypotheses of ice distribution versus altitude in mountain (valley) glaciers – linear and non-linear. The results are estimates of the possible changes of the areas and morphological structure of Northeastern Asia glacier systems and their mass balance characteristics for 2049–60. Finally, we compare characteristics of the stability of continental and maritime glacier systems under global warming.
Discussion Paper (PDF, 1606 KB) Interactive Discussion (Closed, 4 Comments) Final Revised Paper (TC)
Notice on Discussion StatusCitation: Ananicheva, M. D., Krenke, A. N., and Barry, R. G.: The Northeast Asia mountain glaciers in the near future by AOGCM scenarios, The Cryosphere Discuss., 4, 707-735, doi:10.5194/tcd-4-707-2010, 2010. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
