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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Bethan DaviesORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2024 Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved. Plateau icefields are large stores of freshwater, preconditioned to enhanced mass loss due to their gently sloping a ccumulation areas. Accurate modelling of their mass balance is therefore crucial for sea-level rise projections. Here, we use the COupled Snowpackand Ice surface energy and mass-balance model in PYthon (COSIPY) to simulate historical and future mass balance of the Juneau Icefield, Alaska – a high elevation (>1200 m) plateau icefield. We force the model with dynamically downscaled climate simulations, for both pa st and future (RCP 8.5) conditions. The icefield’s mass balance decrea sed from a mean of -0.22 ± 0.38 m w.e. a -1 (1981 to 2019) to -1.52 ± 0.27 m w.e. a -1 (2031 to 2060), with many glaciers shifting from positive to negative mass balances at the start of the 21st century. This mass loss is a ttributed to projected rising air tempera tures and reduced snowfa ll, causing the equilibrium line altitude to rise and triggering a lbedo and melt-elevation feedbacks. These processes exacerbate melt, potentially leading to increased glacier disconnections at icefalls.
Author(s): Ing RN, Ely JC, Jones JM, Davies BJ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Glaciology
Year: 2025
Volume: 71
Online publication date: 28/10/2024
Acceptance date: 02/04/2024
Date deposited: 02/12/2024
ISSN (print): 0022-1430
ISSN (electronic): 1727-5652
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2024.82
DOI: 10.1017/jog.2024.82
Data Access Statement: The modelled surface mass balance for the Juneau Icefield from this study is available for past simulations at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13912616 and for future simulations at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13912973.
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