The climate memory of an Arctic polythermal glacier

Abstract

Knowledge of glacier equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) changes and trends in time is essential for future predictions of glacier volumes. We present a novel method for determining trends in ELA change at McCall Glacier, Alaska, USA, over the last 50 years, based on mapping of the cold–temperate transition surface (CTS), marking the limit between cold and temperate ice of a polythermal glacier. Latent heat release from percolating meltwater and precipitation keeps the ice column temperate in the accumulation area. A change from accumulation to ablation zone reduces this heat release, leading locally to glacier ice cooling. By mapping the CTS along the whole glacier length using radio-echo sounding and employing a thermodynamic model, the timing of the cooling was determined, from which past ELAs were constructed. These are in accord with mass-balance measurements carried out on McCall Glacier since the 1950s. We show that with a warming climate, McCall Glacier tends to cool in a counter-intuitive way.