MODIS albedo and regional mass balance of high Arctic glaciers

MODIS albedo products are compared to glacier mass balance measured on eight glaciers in the high Arctic, in northwestern Svalbard. The glaciers range in size from ca. 5-500 km2. We use MODIS L3 albedo products (MOD43B3), which have a nominal resolution of 1 km, and for which data cover the spring to autumn months of 2000-2006. We compare the albedo data to four glaciers for which there are mass balance measurements in each of the years in the study period (Austre Br\oggerbreen, Midtre Lov´{e}nbreen, Kongsvegen, and Waldemarbreen), as well as four glaciers with some years of mass balance measurements (Holtedahlfonna, Irenebreen, and Elisebreen). While six of the glaciers are only represented by a few MODIS pixels, there is still good correlation between parameters derived from annual albedo minima and the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) of the study glaciers. However, there is no simple threshold method which can be used to directly extract the ELA from the albedo data.