Affiliation:
1. National Snow and Ice Data Center/WDC for Glaciology, Boulder; CIRES and Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0449, USA
Abstract
Mountain glaciers are key indicators of climate change, although the climatic variables involved differ regionally and temporally. Nevertheless, there has been substantial glacier retreat since the Little Ice Age and this has accelerated over the last two to three decades. Documenting these changes is hampered by the paucity of observational data. This review outlines the measurements that are available, new techniques that incorporate remotely sensed data, and major findings around the world. The focus is on changes in glacier area, rather than estimates of mass balance and volume changes that address the role of glacier melt in global sea-level rise. The glacier observations needed for global climate monitoring are also outlined.
Subject
General Earth and Planetary Sciences,Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous),Geography, Planning and Development
Cited by
212 articles.
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