Estimation of the surface ablation and mass balance of Eustre Grønfjordbreen (Spitsbergen)

Abstract

Due to climatic changes in Spitsbergen the glaciation of the Nordenskjold Land (West Spitsbergen) has significantly degraded over the past 100 years. Changes in glaciers are undoubtedly associated with intensive melting caused by a rise of summer air temperatures. Based on the results of field measurements of ablation on the East Grenford glacier, data on the ice reduction were obtained since 2004. Analysis of the results showed that magnitude of the surface ablation is in a good agreement with the values calculated by the Krenke–Hodakov formula, in which the argument is the average summer air temperature. The parabolic dependence of the Krenke-Hodakov formula with the exponent of 3.25 presented the best approximation to the field measurements for all high-altitude zones of the glacier with a correlation coefficient of 0.96. The calculated values of ablation of ice and snow were used to estimate the mass balance of the East Grenford glacier since 2004. The calculations were based on the following: measured values of jump in temperature at the boundary of the glacier, averaged values of the air temperature gradient, and averaged data on snow storage on the glacier. Data on the mass balance of the glacier is indicative of its shortening during the last decade, despite the interannual variations. In 2016, the glacier mass balance reached the lowest value equal to −1990 mm, the calculated value was equal to −1960 mm. Analysis of the data demonstrated that the average summer air temperature is the major factor affecting the glacier mass balance. These results may be useful for estimating melting and mass balance of a number of mountain glaciers of the Nordenskjold Land.

Mass Balance of Austre Grønfjordbreen, Svalbard, 2006–2020, Estimated by Glaciological, Geodetic and Modeling Aproaches

“…From 2014 to 2017, the glacier retreated by 450 m, and in 2017 a significant part of the terminus was separated from the glacier. Thus, in one year the length of the glacier decreased by 330 m [15]. Table 6).…”

“…The latest published work on Austre Grønfjordbreen mass balance [15] provides data measured by the glaciological method since 2004 and modeled using the empirical temperature approach. The latest published work on Austre Grønfjordbreen mass balance [15] provides data since 2004 as measured by the glaciological method and by modeling using the empirical temperature approach originally suggested by Krenke and Khodakov [38], in which the argument is the average summer air temperature with the parabolic dependence of the exponent of 3.25. (Figure 11).…”

“…In this study we accounted for the glacier area decrease in each altitude zone, while in Regarding the mass balance values obtained by the glaciological method in different studies, the discrepancy may be caused by several factors: the approach used to interpolate mass balance over the entire glacier area, the values of ice and snow density that is used for calculating accumulation and ablation into a water equivalent and averaging the winter mass balance value over several years, accounting for glacier area change. In [15], calculation of mass balance was carried out for four altitude zones. Surface ablation values were averaged in each altitude zone based on the stakes data.…”

“…All the values of net mass balance were calculated assuming that the balance year ends on 15 August. In this study we accounted for the glacier area decrease in each altitude zone, while in [15], it was considered constant. The glacier area recession was 15% in 2014-2020, and when such a change is not taken into account, a difference in mass balance calculation of 0.55 m w.e.…”