C24A-08
Improving model estimates of glacier change through improved boundary conditions from remote sensing
Tuesday, 15 December 2015: 17:45
3007 (Moscone West)
Ben Marzeion, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany, Paul Leclercq, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, J. Graham Cogley, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada and Alexander H. Jarosch, University of Iceland, Institute of Earth Sciences, Reykjavik, Iceland
Abstract:
Estimates of the contribution of glaciers to sea-level rise during the 20th century that were published in recent years are strongly divergent. Advances in data availability, most notably from remote sensing, have allowed revisions of some of these published estimates. Here we show that outside of Antarctica, the global estimates of glacier mass loss obtained from glacier-length-based reconstructions and from a glacier model driven by gridded climate observations are now consistent with each other, and also with an estimate for the years 2003 to 2009 that is mostly based on geodetic and gravimetric data. This consistency is found throughout the entire common periods of the respective data sets. Inconsistencies of reconstructions and observations persist in estimates on regional scales.
