Spatial Patterns of Mass-balance Fluctuations of North American Glaciers

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Abstract
Long-term records (10–30 years of measurements) of North American glaciers are compared using Lliboutry’s simplified linear model. This model separates the mass balance into two additive terms, one dependent on the location of the glacier and the other on time. The time-dependent term provides a common signal for the variations of different glaciers. Principal-component analysis indicates that these similarities amount to between 65 and 70% of the total variance for glaciers up to about 500 km apart. Within this distance, similar variations of mass balance and, therefore the same yearly climatic variations, can be observed.