Recent Climatic Mass Balance of the Schiaparelli Glacier at the Monte Sarmiento Massif and Reconstruction of Little Ice Age Climate by Simulating Steady-State Glacier Conditions

Weidemann, Stephanie Suzanne; Arigony-Neto, Jorge; Jaña, Ricardo; Netto, Guilherme; Gonzalez, Inti; Casassa, Gino; Schneider, Christoph

doi:10.3390/geosciences10070272

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Recent Climatic Mass Balance of the Schiaparelli Glacier at the Monte Sarmiento Massif and Reconstruction of Little Ice Age Climate by Simulating Steady-State Glacier Conditions

Stephanie Suzanne Weidemann

^1,2,*,

⁴

⁵

^6,7,

^8,9 and

Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany

Department of Geography, RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany

Instituto de Oceanografia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, 96203-900 Rio Grande, Brazil

⁴

Instituto Antártico Chileno, 6200000 Punta Arenas, Chile

⁵

Centro de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, 96010-610 Pelotas, Brazil

⁶

Programa Doctorado Ciencias Antárticas y Subantárticas, Universidad de Magallanes, 6200000 Punta Arenas, Chile

⁷

Centro de Estudios del Cuaternario de Fuego-Patagonia y Antartica, 6200000 Punta Arenas, Chile

⁸

Centro de Investigación Gaia Antártica, Universidad de Magallanes, 6200000 Punta Arenas, Chile

⁹

General Water Directorate (DGA), 8320000 Santiago de Chile, Chile

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Geosciences 2020, 10(7), 272; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10070272

Received: 14 June 2020 / Revised: 9 July 2020 / Accepted: 11 July 2020 / Published: 15 July 2020

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Abstract

The Cordillera Darwin Icefield loses mass at a similar rate as the Northern and Southern Patagonian Icefields, showing contrasting individual glacier responses, particularly between the north-facing and south-facing glaciers, which are subject to changing climate conditions. Detailed investigations of climatic mass balance processes on recent glacier behavior are not available for glaciers of the Cordillera Darwin Icefield and surrounding icefields. We therefore applied the coupled snow and ice energy and mass balance model in Python (COSIPY) to assess recent surface energy and mass balance variability for the Schiaparelli Glacier at the Monte Sarmiento Massif. We further used COSIPY to simulate steady-state glacier conditions during the Little Ice Age using information of moraine systems and glacier areal extent. The model is driven by downscaled 6-hourly atmospheric data and high resolution precipitation fields, obtained by using an analytical orographic precipitation model. Precipitation and air temperature offsets to present-day climate were considered to reconstruct climatic conditions during the Little Ice Age. A glacier-wide mean annual climatic mass balance of −1.8 ± 0.36 m w.e. a

^{- 1}

was simulated between between April 2000 and March 2017. An air temperature decrease between −0.9

°

C and −1.7

°

C in combination with a precipitation offset of up to +60% to recent climate conditions is necessary to simulate steady-state conditions for Schiaparelli Glacier in 1870. View Full-Text

Keywords: Monte Sarmiento Massif; Schiaparelli Glacier; glacier climatic mass balance; glacier surface energy and mass balance model; Little Ice Age

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Weidemann, S.S.; Arigony-Neto, J.; Jaña, R.; Netto, G.; Gonzalez, I.; Casassa, G.; Schneider, C. Recent Climatic Mass Balance of the Schiaparelli Glacier at the Monte Sarmiento Massif and Reconstruction of Little Ice Age Climate by Simulating Steady-State Glacier Conditions. Geosciences 2020, 10, 272. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10070272

AMA Style

Weidemann SS, Arigony-Neto J, Jaña R, Netto G, Gonzalez I, Casassa G, Schneider C. Recent Climatic Mass Balance of the Schiaparelli Glacier at the Monte Sarmiento Massif and Reconstruction of Little Ice Age Climate by Simulating Steady-State Glacier Conditions. Geosciences. 2020; 10(7):272. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10070272

Chicago/Turabian Style

Weidemann, Stephanie Suzanne, Jorge Arigony-Neto, Ricardo Jaña, Guilherme Netto, Inti Gonzalez, Gino Casassa, and Christoph Schneider. 2020. "Recent Climatic Mass Balance of the Schiaparelli Glacier at the Monte Sarmiento Massif and Reconstruction of Little Ice Age Climate by Simulating Steady-State Glacier Conditions" Geosciences 10, no. 7: 272. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10070272

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Recent Climatic Mass Balance of the Schiaparelli Glacier at the Monte Sarmiento Massif and Reconstruction of Little Ice Age Climate by Simulating Steady-State Glacier Conditions

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