Recent contrasting behaviour of mountain glaciers across the European High Arctic revealed by ArcticDEM data

Abstract

Abstract. Small land-terminating mountain glaciers are a widespread and important element of Arctic ecosystems, influencing local hydrology, microclimate, and ecology. Due to their relatively small ice volumes, this class of ice mass is particularly sensitive to the significant ongoing climate warming in the European sector of the Arctic, i.e. in the Barents Sea area. Archipelagos surrounding the Barents Sea, i.e. Svalbard (SV), Novaya Zemlya (NZ), and Franz Josef Land (FJ), host numerous populations of mountain glaciers, but their response to recent strong warming remains understudied in most locations. This paper aims to obtain a snapshot of their state by utilizing high-resolution elevation data (ArcticDEM) to investigate the recent (ca. 2011–2017) elevation and volume changes of 382 small glaciers across SV, NZ, and FJ. The study concludes that many mountain glacier sites across the Barents Sea have been in a critical imbalance with the recent climate and might melt away within the coming several decades. However, deviations from the general trend exist; e.g. a cluster of small glaciers in north SV has been experiencing thickening. The findings reveal that near-stagnant glaciers might exhibit contrasting behaviours (fast thinning vs. thickening) over relatively short distances, which is a challenge for glacier mass balance models but also an opportunity to test their reliability.

Post-Little Ice Age glacial lake evolution in Svalbard: inventory of lake changes and lake types

“…Rachlewicz and others, 2007; Małecki, 2016). In recent years, these glaciers have been displaying rapid thinning rates along west Spitsbergen and at Edgeøya (marginal thinning of 3–4 m/year) to more balanced conditions in the north and north-east (marginal thinning of 0.5–1 m year −1 ) (Małecki, 2022).…”

The Rise and Fall of Alaska and Yukon Glaciers Detected by TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason‐2 Altimeters Using a Novel Glacier‐Threshold Method

“…It is used to correct for the terrain gradient effect and remove erroneous land surface heights (LSH) from the altimeters. The DEM used in this paper is ArcticDEM, which has been widely used for the study of glacier dynamics and surface elevation changes (Hugonnet et al., 2021; Małecki, 2022; Zemp et al., 2019). This DEM was constructed from WorldView and GeoEye optical stereo image pairs at a spatial resolution of ∼0.5 m, corrected by ground control measurements obtained from ICESat/ICESat‐2 laser altimetry data (Porter et al., 2018).…”

Paraglacial transformation and ice‐dammed lake dynamics in a high Arctic glacier foreland, Gåsbreen, Svalbard

“…The last few decades of sustained warming of the Arctic region are predominantly reflected in a strong surface air temperature rise and extensive decline of the sea‐ice cover (e.g., Barry, 2017; Sumata et al, 2022; Thoman et al, 2020). Warming of the Arctic climate entailed also changes in terrestrial environments such as an increase of ground temperatures and degradation of permafrost (e.g., Dobiński & Kasprzak, 2022; Karjalainen et al, 2020; Smith et al, 2022), and/or rapid retreat of glaciers (e.g., Cook et al, 2019; Hugonnet et al, 2021; Małecki, 2022; Sasgen et al, 2022). Among subregions of the Arctic, exceptional climate warming was characteristic of the Barents Sea region with Svalbard Archipelago at its heart (Isaksen et al, 2022).…”