Mass changes in Arctic ice caps and glaciers: implications of regionalizing elevation changes
The mass balance of glaciers and ice caps is sensitive to changing climate conditions. The mass changes derived in this study are determined from elevation changes derived measured by the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) for the time period 2003–2009. Four methods, based on interpol...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2015-01-01
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| Series: | The Cryosphere |
| Online Access: | http://www.the-cryosphere.net/9/139/2015/tc-9-139-2015.pdf |
| _version_ | 1811309308265103360 |
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| author | J. Nilsson L. Sandberg Sørensen V. R. Barletta R. Forsberg |
| author_facet | J. Nilsson L. Sandberg Sørensen V. R. Barletta R. Forsberg |
| author_sort | J. Nilsson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The mass balance of glaciers and ice caps is sensitive to changing climate
conditions. The mass changes derived in this study are determined from
elevation changes derived measured by the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation
Satellite (ICESat) for the time period 2003–2009. Four methods, based on
interpolation and extrapolation, are used to regionalize these elevation
changes to areas without satellite coverage. A constant density assumption is
then applied to estimate the mass change by integrating over the entire
glaciated region.
<br><br>
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the sensitivity of the
regional mass balance of Arctic ice caps and glaciers to different
regionalization schemes. The sensitivity analysis is based on studying the
spread of mass changes and their associated errors, and the suitability of
the different regionalization techniques is assessed through
cross-validation.
<br><br>
The cross-validation results shows comparable accuracies for all
regionalization methods, but the inferred mass change in individual regions,
such as Svalbard and Iceland, can vary up to 4 Gt a<sup>−1</sup>, which exceeds the
estimated errors by roughly 50% for these regions. This study further
finds that this spread in mass balance is connected to the magnitude of the
elevation change variability. This indicates that care should be taken when
choosing a regionalization method, especially for areas which exhibit large
variability in elevation change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T09:40:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a28ed2955dea46efa9e728cea5227d8e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1994-0416 1994-0424 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T09:40:01Z |
| publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Cryosphere |
| spelling | doaj.art-a28ed2955dea46efa9e728cea5227d8e2022-12-22T02:51:57ZengCopernicus PublicationsThe Cryosphere1994-04161994-04242015-01-019113915010.5194/tc-9-139-2015Mass changes in Arctic ice caps and glaciers: implications of regionalizing elevation changesJ. Nilsson0L. Sandberg Sørensen1V. R. Barletta2R. Forsberg3Department of Geodynamics, DTU Space, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, 2800 Lyngby, DenmarkDepartment of Geodynamics, DTU Space, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, 2800 Lyngby, DenmarkDepartment of Geodynamics, DTU Space, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, 2800 Lyngby, DenmarkDepartment of Geodynamics, DTU Space, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, 2800 Lyngby, DenmarkThe mass balance of glaciers and ice caps is sensitive to changing climate conditions. The mass changes derived in this study are determined from elevation changes derived measured by the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) for the time period 2003–2009. Four methods, based on interpolation and extrapolation, are used to regionalize these elevation changes to areas without satellite coverage. A constant density assumption is then applied to estimate the mass change by integrating over the entire glaciated region. <br><br> The main purpose of this study is to investigate the sensitivity of the regional mass balance of Arctic ice caps and glaciers to different regionalization schemes. The sensitivity analysis is based on studying the spread of mass changes and their associated errors, and the suitability of the different regionalization techniques is assessed through cross-validation. <br><br> The cross-validation results shows comparable accuracies for all regionalization methods, but the inferred mass change in individual regions, such as Svalbard and Iceland, can vary up to 4 Gt a<sup>−1</sup>, which exceeds the estimated errors by roughly 50% for these regions. This study further finds that this spread in mass balance is connected to the magnitude of the elevation change variability. This indicates that care should be taken when choosing a regionalization method, especially for areas which exhibit large variability in elevation change.http://www.the-cryosphere.net/9/139/2015/tc-9-139-2015.pdf |
| spellingShingle | J. Nilsson L. Sandberg Sørensen V. R. Barletta R. Forsberg Mass changes in Arctic ice caps and glaciers: implications of regionalizing elevation changes The Cryosphere |
| title | Mass changes in Arctic ice caps and glaciers: implications of regionalizing elevation changes |
| title_full | Mass changes in Arctic ice caps and glaciers: implications of regionalizing elevation changes |
| title_fullStr | Mass changes in Arctic ice caps and glaciers: implications of regionalizing elevation changes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mass changes in Arctic ice caps and glaciers: implications of regionalizing elevation changes |
| title_short | Mass changes in Arctic ice caps and glaciers: implications of regionalizing elevation changes |
| title_sort | mass changes in arctic ice caps and glaciers implications of regionalizing elevation changes |
| url | http://www.the-cryosphere.net/9/139/2015/tc-9-139-2015.pdf |
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