Recent climate trends, Glacier Bay, Alaska

Glaciers and ice caps respond to changes in regional climate at decadal scales and can thus serve as indicators of regional climate change. Many of the tidewater and terrestrial glaciers in Glacier Bay, Alaska have been in a state of rapid retreat since the late 1700s, with highly disparate rates of recession occurring in the western versus eastern arms, yet the combination of environmental and glaciological factors that must exist to catalyze these rapid changes is not clearly understood. The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) initiated the first systematic analyses of weather and precipitation patterns across Glacier Bay National Park in 2000 by establishing 26 meteorological stations with the long-term objective of better understanding regional and global factors, that control terrestrial and marine physical systems. Initial temperature and precipitation trends show rapid seasonal and annual shifts. This is consistent with apparent paleo-trends in climate and glacier advance and recession over the last 9K years, as well as the historical record that indicate the area is climatically sensitive. Comparisons of summer and winter precipitation totals show a precipitation gradient increasing northward from the lower bay to the head of Muir Inlet (east arm), and decreasing northwestward in the West Arm. Monthly averages of air temperatures span about 3.5 C between the warmest and coldest sites near sea level. Winter temperatures averaged more than 1 C colder in the West Arm than the East. We also found large gradients of increasing rainfall from north to south in the east arm, from north to south in the Western arm. Average temperatures in October decreased westward in the northern half of the Park and were milder at sites within the larger southern Bay. Continuing a long-term climate-monitoring program in Glacier Bay will assist with quantifying climate trends in the context of glacial movement, helping to determine the overall sensitivity of the regional glacial system to regional climate signals.