Mass Balance of the High-Arctic Glacier Nordenskiöldbreen, Svalbard, in a Changing Climate

Sammanfattning: Melting glaciers are the major contributor to sea level rise. Glaciers are sensitive indicators of climate change and current experience strong developments in a rapidly warming Arctic environment. Time-series of the mass balance of the glacier Nordenskiöldbreen are constructed by using height observations from the stake measurements on the glacier. The connection between the glacier mass balance and monthly averaged weather parameters observed at nearby meteorological stations will be analyzed. The total net balance on glacier Nordenskiöldbreen is found to be negative (-0.09 m w.e. per year) between 2005 and 2017. The mass balance during the summer season correlates strongest with maximum air temperature, while the winter balance is found to be mostly influenced by cloud cover and temperature, rather than precipitation. The results show that precipitation observed at nearby weather stations are not representative for precipitation amounts observed on the glacier.