Interannual variability and glacier length

Project description

Valley glacier moraines are commonly used to infer past mean annual precipitation and mean melt-season temperature. However, recent research has demonstrated that, even in steady climates, multi-decadal, kilometer-scale fluctuations in glacier length occur in response to stochastic, year-to-year variability in mass balance. When interpreting moraine sequences it is important to include the effect of interannual weather variability on glacier length; moraines record advances that are forced either by interannual variability or by a combination of climate change and interannual variability. Our hope is to help establish the metrics needed to determine if a past glacier advance was caused by interannual variability or a climate change.

Objectives

1) Assess the importance of year-to-year climate variability (weather) on glacier length in a variety of climate settings 2) Create quantitative metrics to test if a glacier length change could be caused by weather variability.

Time-line

Provide (estimated) Start: Jan. 2014 and End: Dec. 2015

Models in use

We are using 1 and 2D Matlab-based numerical glacier models. The models are used in both idealized and geographical settings with a variety of parameterizations for glacier mass balance.

Results

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Users

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Funding

National Science Foundation (NSF) grant DGE- 1144083 (GRFP)

Publications and presentations

Anderson, Leif S., Gerard H. Roe, and Robert S. Anderson. "The effects of interannual climate variability on the moraine record." Geology 42.1 (2014): 55-58.

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HPCCprojects:Interannual variability and glacier length