Sponsor
This research has been supported by the Tula Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, Government of Canada, and the U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystem Mission Area Climate Research and Development Program.
Published In
EGUsphere
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2024
Subjects
Glaciers -- Climatic factors, Glacial microorganisms, Glacier -- Meltwater
Abstract
Glaciers in western North American outside of Alaska are often overlooked in global studies because their potential to contribute to changes in sea level is small. Nonetheless, these glaciers represent important sources of freshwater, especially during times of drought. Differencing recent ICESat-2 data from a digital elevation model derived from a combination of synthetic aperture radar data (TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X), we find that over the period 2013–2020, glaciers in western North America lost mass at a rate of 12:3+3:5 Gt yr-1. This rate is comparable to the rate of mass loss (11:71:0 Gt yr1) for the period 2018– 2022 calculated through trend analysis using ICESat-2 and Global Ecosystems Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) data.
Rights
Copyright (c) 2024 The Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.5194/tc-18-889-2024
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/41372
Citation Details
Menounos, B., Gardner, A., Forentine, C., & Fountain, A. (2023). Brief Communication: Recent estimates of glacier mass loss for western North America from laser altimetry. EGUsphere, 2023, 1-10.