CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Cogley, J.G.; Adams, W.P.; Ecclestone, M.A.; Jung-Rothenhauser, F.; and Ommaney, C.S.L.
Date : 1996
Title : Mass balance of White Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island, N.W.T., Canada, 1960-1991
Publication : Journal of Glaciology
Issue : 42(142):
Page(s) : 548-563
Abstract
White Glacier is a valley glacier at 79.5 N with an area of 38.7 km2. Its mass balance has been measured, over a 32 years with a 3 year gap, by standard techniques using the stratigraphic system with a stake density of the order of one stake per km2. Errors in stake mass balance are about +/- (200-500) mm, due largely to the local unrepresentativeness of measurements. Errors in the whole-glacier mass balance B are of the same order as single-stake errors. However, the lag-l autocorrelation in the time series B is effectively zero, so it consists of independent random samples, and the error in the long-term "balance-normal" is noticeably less. is -100+/-48 mm. The equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) average 970 m, with a range of 470-1400 m. Mass balance is well correlated with ELA, but detailed modelling shows that the equilibrium line is undetectable on visible-band satellite images. A reduced network of a few stakes could give acceptable but less accurate estimates of the mass balance, as could estimates based on data from a weather station 120 km away. There is no evidence of a trend in the mass balance of White Glacier. To detect a climatologically plausible trend will require a ten-fold reduction of measurement error, a conclusion which may well apply to most estimates of mass balance based on similar stake densities.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology