| Title | Extreme melt on Canada's Arctic ice caps in the 21st century |
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| Author | Sharp, M; Burgess, D O ; Cogley, J G; Ecclestone, M; Labine, C; Wolken, G J |
| Source | Geophysical Research Letters vol. 38, L11501, 2011., https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL047381  Open Access |
| Image |  |
| Year | 2011 |
| Alt Series | Earth Sciences Sector, Contribution Series 20110160 |
| Publisher | Wiley-Blackwell |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf |
| Province | Nunavut |
| NTS | 48G; 48H; 58G; 58H; 49; 59; 68G; 68H; 69; 78G; 78H; 79; 88H; 89; 120; 340; 560A |
| Area | Queen Elizabeth Islands; Arctic Archipelago; Melville Island; Devon Island; Ellesmere Island; Axel Heiberg Island; Meighen Island |
| Lat/Long WENS | -116.0000 -60.0000 83.0000 75.0000 |
| Subjects | environmental geology; surficial geology/geomorphology; Nature and Environment; ice; glaciers; climatic fluctuations; temperature; Quaternary |
| Illustrations | location maps |
| Program | Climate Change Geoscience |
| Released | 2011 06 09 |
| Abstract | Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands contain ~14% of
Earth's glacier and ice cap area. Snow accumulation on these
glaciers is low and varies little from year to year. Changes
in their surface mass
balance are driven largely by changes
in summer air temperatures, surface melting and runoff.
Relative to 2000-2004, strong summer warming since 2005
(1.1 to 1.6°C at 700 hPa) has increased summer mean ice
surface temperatures and melt
season length on the major
ice caps in this region by 0.8 to 2.2°C and 4.7 to 11.9 d
respectively. 30-48% of the total mass lost from 4 monitored
glaciers since 1963 has occurred since 2005. The mean rate
of mass loss from these 4
glaciers between 2005 and 2009
(-493 kg m-2 a-1) was nearly 5 times greater than the 1963-
2004 average. In 2007 and 2008, it was 7 times greater
(-698 kg m-2 a-1). These changes are associated with a
summer atmospheric circulation
configuration that favors
strong heat advection into the Queen Elizabeth Islands from
the northwest Atlantic, where sea surface temperatures have
been anomalously high. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 289142 |
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