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| Titel |
Mass balance measurements of Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland, 1992-2013 |
| VerfasserIn |
Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir, Finnur Palsson, Helgi Bjornsson, Alexander H. Jarosch, Eyjólfur Magnússon |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2014
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 16 (2014) |
| Datensatznummer |
250094105
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2014-9491.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Analysis of the annual mass balance measurements on Vatnajökull ice cap is presented. Stake
measurements are done on about 60 locations on the ice cap in spring and autumn to assess
the total mass balance. Measurements commenced in autumn 1991 and during the first three
years the average net balance was positive, but since then it has been negative for the whole
ice cap. During the period of net mass loss the northern outlets have had several years of
close to zero and positive mass balance. The variability in winter accumulation is
considerably smaller than summer ablation and is largely dependent on the prevailing wind
direction. Cloud cover and albedo variability due to windblown dust or ashes control the
ablation. The 2010 ablation season had anomalously high ablation due to windblown ashes
from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption that lowered the albedo . The years 1997, 2003, 2010 and
2012 had higher than average ablation. During the period of negative mass balance the total
mass loss was 13.7 mw.e. or an average surface lowering of 0.83 m a-1. This is
equivalent to a total ice volume of 122 km3 or about 4% of the total ice volume. |
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