The status of research on glaciers and global glacier recession: a review
- 1 July 2006
- journal article
- review article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment
- Vol. 30 (3) , 285-306
- https://doi.org/10.1191/0309133306pp478ra
Abstract
Mountain glaciers are key indicators of climate change, although the climatic variables involved differ regionally and temporally. Nevertheless, there has been substantial glacier retreat since the Little Ice Age and this has accelerated over the last two to three decades. Documenting these changes is hampered by the paucity of observational data. This review outlines the measurements that are available, new techniques that incorporate remotely sensed data, and major findings around the world. The focus is on changes in glacier area, rather than estimates of mass balance and volume changes that address the role of glacier melt in global sea-level rise. The glacier observations needed for global climate monitoring are also outlined.Keywords
This publication has 78 references indexed in Scilit:
- Elevation changes of ice caps in the Canadian Arctic ArchipelagoJournal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 2004
- Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance 1991–2000: Application of Polar MM5 mesoscale model and in situ dataJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2004
- Modelling changes in the mass balance of glaciers of the northern hemisphere for a transient 2×CO2 scenarioJournal of Hydrology, 2003
- Late‐twentieth century changes in glacier extent in the Ak‐shirak Range, Central Asia, determined from historical data and ASTER imageryGeophysical Research Letters, 2003
- Retreat of mountain glaciers of northern Eurasia since the Little Ice Age maximumAnnals of Glaciology, 2000
- Swiss glacier recession since the Little Ice Age: Reconciliation with climate recordsGeophysical Research Letters, 1999
- The Arctic oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fieldsGeophysical Research Letters, 1998
- Global distributions of glacier properties: A stochastic scaling paradigmWater Resources Research, 1997
- New Zealand glacier responses to climate change of the past centuryNew Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 1996
- Estimation of Mass Balance Components of a Summer-Accumulation Type Glacier in the Nepal HimalayaGeografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography, 1984