"Boas" Glacier (Baffin Island, N.W.T., Canada) Mass Balance for the Five Budget Years 1969 to 1974

Weaver, R. L.

doi:10.2307/1550003

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…It is difficult to compare our regional estimates of glacier mass change with earlier in situ measurements that have small spatial coverage and span short time periods (Ward, 1954;Sagar, 1966;Løken and Sagar, 1967;Weaver, 1975). The only place a reasonable comparison with pre-ATM (1995) estimates can be made is for the Barnes Ice Cap where long-term elevation differences have been measured for a summit-to-terminus transect along the north-east lobe of the ice cap (Hooke et al, 1987;Sneed et al, 2008).…”

Section: Comparison With Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Only a handful of in situ conventional and geodetic glacier observations exist for the Barnes Ice Cap (1950(Ward, 1954), 1962-1966(Sagar, 1966), 1965-1966(Løken and Sagar, 1967), 1970-1984(Hooke et al, 1987) and 1984-2006(Sneed et al, 2008), the Penny Ice Cap (1953(Ward, 1954, 2008-present (Geological Survey of Canada)) and a small valley glacier situated to the northeast of the Penny Ice Cap (1969( -1976( (Weaver, 1975). There are also observations of modern changes in the margin positions of the Barnes Ice Cap (Jacobs et al, , 1997 and some 662 glaciers located on the Cumberland Peninsula, southern Baffin Island (Paul and Svoboda, 2009 Dowdeswell et al (2007).…”

Section: Study Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The interannual variability of snowfall amounts (accumulation) over the glaciers of Baffin and Bylot Islands is small relative to the interannual variability of ablation, and changes in glacier mass budget are well correlated with changes in summer temperature but not as well with changes in precipitation (Sneed et al, 2008;Hooke et al, 1987;Weaver, 1975) nearly identical long-term trends in mean summer temperatures of +0.35 ± 0.02 • C per decade (Fig. 9a), and recent analysis of passive microwave data indicates an increase in the number of melt days over the Barnes Ice Cap between 1979-2010 .…”

Section: Drivers Of Increased Mass Changementioning

confidence: 99%

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Accelerated contributions of Canada's Baffin and Bylot Island glaciers to sea level rise over the past half century

et al. 2012

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Abstract. Canadian Arctic glaciers have recently contributed large volumes of meltwater to the world's oceans. To place recently observed glacier wastage into a historical perspective and to determine the region's longer-term (∼50 years) contribution to sea level, we estimate mass and volume changes for the glaciers of Baffin and Bylot Islands using digital elevation models generated from airborne and satellite stereoscopic imagery and elevation postings from repeat airborne and satellite laser altimetry. In addition, we update existing glacier mass change records from GRACE satellite gravimetry to cover the period from 2003 to 2011. Using this integrated approach, we find that the rate of mass loss from the region's glaciers increased from 11.1 ± 3.4 Gt a −1 (271 ± 84 kg m −2 a −1 ) for the period 1963-2006 to 23.8 ± 6.1 Gt a −1 (581 ± 149 kg m −2 a −1 ) for the period 2003-2011. The doubling of the rate of mass loss is attributed to higher temperatures in summer with little change in annual precipitation. Through both direct and indirect effects, changes in summer temperatures accounted for 70-98 % of the variance in the rate of mass loss, to which the Barnes Ice Cap was found to be 1.7 times more sensitive than either the Penny Ice Cap or the region's glaciers as a whole. This heightened sensitivity is the result of a glacier hypsometry that is skewed to lower elevations, which are shown to have a higher mass change sensitive to temperature compared to glacier surfaces at higher elevations. Between 2003 and 2011 the glaciers of Baffin and Bylot Islands contributed 0.07 ± 0.02 mm a −1 to sea level rise accounting for 16 % of the total contribution from glaciers outside of Greenland and Antarctica, a rate much higher than the longer-term average of 0.03 ± 0.01 mm a −1 (1963 to 2006).

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Section: Comparison With Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Study Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Drivers Of Increased Mass Changementioning

confidence: 99%

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Accelerated contributions of Canada's Baffin and Bylot Island glaciers to sea level rise over the past half century

et al. 2012

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“…This situation has led to warmer, longer summer melt periods on glaciers of the eastern CAA, and this largely accounts for their increasingly negative mass balance (Weaver, 1975;Hooke et al, 1987;Koerner, 2005;Sneed et al, 2008;Gardner and Sharp, 2007;Gardner et al, 2012).…”

Section: Regional Context and Climatic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Area, elevation and mass changes of the two southernmost ice caps of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago between 1952 and 2014

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Grinnell and Terra Nivea Ice Caps are located on the southern Baffin Island, Nunavut, in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. These relatively small ice caps have received little attention compared to the much larger ice masses further north. Their evolution can, however, give valuable information about the impact of the recent Arctic warming at lower latitudes (i.e. ~ 62.5° N). In this paper, we measure or estimate historical and recent changes of area, elevation and mass of both ice caps using in situ, airborne and spaceborne data sets, including imagery from the Pléiades satellites. The area of Terra Nivea Ice Cap has decreased by 34 % since the late 1950s, while that of Grinnell Ice Cap has decreased by 20 % since 1952. For both ice caps, the areal reduction accelerated at the beginning of the 21st century. The estimated glacier-wide mass balance was −0.37 ± 0.21 m a−1 water equivalent (w.e.) over Grinnell Ice Cap for the 1952–2014 period, and −0.47 ± 0.16 m a−1 w.e. over Terra Nivea Ice Cap for the 1958/59–2014 period. Terra Nivea Ice Cap has experienced an accelerated rate of mass loss of −1.77 ± 0.36 m a−1 w.e. between 2007 and 2014. This rate is 5.9 times as negative when compared to the 1958/59–2007 period (−0.30 ± 0.19 m a−1 w.e.) and 2 times as negative when compared to the mass balance of other glaciers in the southern parts of Baffin Island over the 2003–2009 period. A similar acceleration in mass loss is suspected for the Grinnell Ice Cap, given the calculated elevation changes and the proximity to Terra Nivea Ice Cap. The recent increase in mass loss rates for these two ice caps is linked to a strong near-surface regional warming and a lengthening of the melt season into the autumn that may be indirectly strengthened by a later freezing of sea ice in the Hudson Strait sector. On a methodological level, our study illustrates the strong potential of Pléiades satellite data to unlock the under-exploited archive of old aerial photographs.

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“…Thus Weber and Andrieux [1970] give a revised altitude of 1838 m for site A1, initially reported at 2050 m [Orvig, 1954]. Airborne laser altimetry surveys conducted over Penny Ice Cap since 1995 [Abdalati et al, 2004] [Jacobs et al, 1972;Weaver, 1975;Mokievsky-Zubok et al, 1985]. [Ward, 1954], 1979 [Holdsworth, 1984], 1995(R. Koerner, unpublished data, 1995 and 2010-11 (this work).…”

Section: Surface Mass Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

Summer melt rates on Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island: Past and recent trends and implications for regional climate

et al. 2012

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[1] At latitude 67 N, Penny Ice Cap on Baffin Island is the southernmost large ice cap in the Canadian Arctic, yet its past and recent evolution is poorly documented. Here we present a synthesis of climatological observations, mass balance measurements and proxy climate data from cores drilled on the ice cap over the past six decades (1953 to 2011). We find that starting in the 1980s, Penny Ice Cap entered a phase of enhanced melt rates related to rising summer and winter air temperatures across the eastern Arctic. Presently, 70 to 100% (volume) of the annual accumulation at the ice cap summit is in the form of refrozen meltwater. Recent surface melt rates are found to be comparable to those last experienced more than 3000 years ago. Enhanced surface melt, water percolation and refreezing have led to a downward transfer of latent heat that raised the subsurface firn temperature by 10 C (at 10 m depth) since the mid-1990s. This process may accelerate further mass loss of the ice cap by pre-conditioning the firn for the ensuing melt season. Recent warming in the Baffin region has been larger in winter but more regular in summer, and observations on Penny Ice Cap suggest that it was relatively uniform over the 2000-m altitude range of the ice cap. Our findings are consistent with trends in glacier mass loss in the Canadian High Arctic and regional sea-ice cover reduction, reinforcing the view that the Arctic appears to be reverting back to a thermal state not seen in millennia.

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"Boas" Glacier (Baffin Island, N.W.T., Canada) Mass Balance for the Five Budget Years 1969 to 1974

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Accelerated contributions of Canada's Baffin and Bylot Island glaciers to sea level rise over the past half century

Accelerated contributions of Canada's Baffin and Bylot Island glaciers to sea level rise over the past half century

Area, elevation and mass changes of the two southernmost ice caps of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago between 1952 and 2014

Summer melt rates on Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island: Past and recent trends and implications for regional climate

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