T334 New Research on the Taku and Llewellyn Glaciers, Juneau Icefield, Alaska and British Columbia: Extending a 68 Year Climate Science Legacy
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
202/203
TRENDS BETWEEN TRANSIENT SNOWLINE MIGRATION AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SNOW ACCUMULATION LEMON CREEK GLACIER, ALASKA
Paper number: T334-10
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:35 PM – 2:50 PM
Authors
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Saskia GindrauxWSL Institute for Snow and Avalance Research, Davos, N/A
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Melissa BrettRadford Univ, Radford, VA
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Danielle BeatyUniversity Colorado, Boulder, CO
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Luc RondeauUniversity Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK
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Carmen BraunDalhousie University, Halifax, NS
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Hannah RosenkransUniversity Montana, Missoula, MT
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Kristin ArnellColumbia University, New York City, NY
Abstract
The Juneau Icefield Research Program has observed annual surface mass balance on the Lemon Creek Glacier since 1953 but lacks ablation data at the end of the hydrological year. The current procedure is to use snow pit data collected mid-July and extrapolate the values to the end of the ablation season by using the Transient Snow Line (TSL) migration rate. However, this method assumes a laterally consistent ablation rate over the glacier, which might lead to errors in the amount of melt and position of the Equilibrium-Line Altitude (ELA). To further examine this assumption, we use lateral probing profiles along with the snow pits to better quantify the TSL migration, ablation rate variability, and their correlation with snow distribution. The potential to better estimate the mass balance gradient from this method will provide a more accurate calculation of annual mass balance applicable on numerous glaciers for many years.