Snow accumulation on a small high‐arctic glacier svenbreen: variability and topographic controls

Abstract

One of the main controls on the net mass change of land‐terminating Arctic glaciers is the magnitude and distribution of snow accumulation. In Dickson Land, region of Svalbard with the greatest distance to the sea, the issue has not been receiving much scientific attention for decades. In this paper, new snow accumulation data are presented from Svenbreen in Dickson Land from end‐of‐winter surveys. The measured winter balance was 0.42 ± 0.15 m w.e. in 2010, 0.50 ± 0.10 m w.e. in 2011 and 0.62 ± 0.10 cm w.e. in 2012. Snow depth and water equivalent have been analysed in the background of altitude, slope and aspect extracted from the digital elevation model of the glacier. On steep northern slopes (>15°) accumulation was the highest, whereas it was decreased on southern slopes with moderate inclination (9–12°). Elevation, which on many glaciers proved to be highly correlated with snow depth, explained only 17–34% of snow depth variability due to complex interplay between local climate and geometry of a small valley.