Using Flowband Modelling to Reconstruct Volume Change of Athabasca Glacier in the Canadian Rocky Mountains over the Last Millennium
Date
2018-05-22
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Abstract
Glaciers respond strongly to small climatic shifts, so records of historical glacier change can be used to reconstruct past climate. In turn, understanding glacier sensitivity to climate variability is important for regional water resource management and for projecting glacier response to ongoing climate change. We develop an enhanced flow-band model of glacier dynamics to simulate the past and future extent of glaciers in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, with the aim of coupling this model within larger scale regional climate models of glacier response to climate change. Longitudinal stress and valley shape factors are introduced to provide a more complete treatment of glacier dynamics. This presentation focuses on glacier volume reconstructions over the last millennium for Athabasca Glacier, Alberta, Canada, with a particular focus on glacier reconstructions in the Little Ice Age (LIA). Athabasca Glacier, located on the continental divide of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, is the second largest outlet of the Columbia Icefield. With the availability of SPOT 5 imagery, digital elevation models, and the ArcGIS Hydro tool, ice catchment properties, glacier width, and LIA moraines have been extracted using automated procedures. I model glacier thickness, volume, and mass change for different climate and glaciological parametrizations that give good reconstructions of LIA ice extent. Dated lateral and terminal moraines provide geological control on the LIA maximum glacier geometry. Mass balance modelling is based on observed temperature records from the region, along with the winter Pacific Decadal Oscillation index as a precipitation proxy. Reconstructions of glacier mass change inform estimates of meltwater runoff over the historical period, and model calibration from the LIA and 20th-century reconstructions will aid in future projections of the effects of climate change on glacier recession. Furthermore, the model developed will be effective for further future studies with ensembles of glaciers.
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Keywords
Flowband modelling, climate change, volume loss, Athabasca Glacier, Last millennium, glaciology
Citation
Nath, R. (2018). Using Flowband Modelling to Reconstruct Volume Change of Athabasca Glacier in the Canadian Rocky Mountains over the Last Millennium (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/31942