Response Time for Glacier Mass Balance
Abstract
Interannual fluctuations in mass balance, since they do not involve the sluggish mechanism of ice flow, are sometimes considered the "undelayed" response of glaciers to climate forcing. However, nonzero mass balance is indicative of a disequilibrium, between present climate and present glacier state. Given a constant climate, this disequilibrium would decay, with a time constant similar to the glacier adjustment time. Taken together with the negative correlation between globally averaged values of temperature and mass balance, the increasingly negative balances of recent decades indicate a climate that is warming more rapidly than glaciers are capable of adjusting. A mass-balance response time on the order of decades is indicated for the global glacier inventory, but data quality limits the precision with which this parameter can be specified.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001AGUFMIP22A0687G
- Keywords:
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- 1827 Glaciology (1863);
- 1863 Snow and ice (1827);
- 3309 Climatology (1620)