Northern hemisphere ice sheets and planetary waves: A strong feedback mechanism

✍ Scribed by Lindeman, M. ;Oerlemans, J.

• Book ID: 102912525
• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1987
• Weight: 702 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 2314-6214
• DOI: 10.1002/joc.3370070202

✦ Synopsis

We carried out a statistical analysis of the relation between the net mass balance of high-latitude glaciers and 500 mb height deviations of the seasonal mean atmosphere. Mass-balance series of 23 glaciers and ice caps were used, ranging in length from 8 to 30 yr. Considering the sample as a whole, it appeared that the only significant predictor for mass balance variations is the summer anomaly of the 500mb height. Except for a few individual glaciers, correlations with mean vorticity and meridional wind component turned out to be insignificant.

To investigate the potential feedback between ice-age ice sheets and planetary waves, we used a stationary two-layer atmospheric model to calculate the response to the CLIMAP (1976) ice-sheet topography for 18,000YBP. Combining the result with the statistical analysis reveals that the feedback is important: the planetary-wave pattern forced by the ice sheets leads to deviations of the equilibrium-line altitude of about 500m.