Canadian High Arctic terrestrial ice masses and the polar atmosphere evolve co-dependently, and interactions between the two systems can lead to feedbacks, positive and negative. The two primary positive cryosphere-atmosphere feedbacks are: 1) The snow/ice-albedo feedback (where area changes in snow and/or ice cause changes in surface albedo and surface air temperatures, leading to further area changes in snow/ice); and 2) The elevation - mass balance feedback (where thickness changes in terrestrial ice masses cause changes to atmospheric circulation and precipitation patterns, leading to further ice thickness changes). In this thesis, numerical experiments are performed to: 1) quantify the magnitudes of the two feedbacks for chosen Canadian High Arctic terrestrial ice masses; and 2) to examine the direct and indirect consequences of surface air temperature changes upon englacial temperatures with implications for ice flow, mass flux divergence, and topographic evolution.
Model results show that: a) for John Evans Glacier, Ellesmere Island, the magnitude of the terrestrial snow/ice-albedo feedback can locally exceed that of sea ice on less than decadal timescales, with implications for glacier response times to climate perturbations; b) although historical air temperature changes might be the direct cause of measured englacial temperature anomalies in various glacier and ice cap accumulation zones, they can also be the indirect cause of their enhanced diffusive loss; c) while the direct result of past air temperature changes has been to cool the interior of John Evans Glacier, and its bed, the indirect result has been to create and maintain warm (pressure melting point) basal temperatures in the ablation zone; and d) for Devon Ice Cap, observed mass gains in the northwest sector of the ice cap would be smaller without orographic precipitation and the mass balance – elevation feedback, supporting the hypothesis that this feedback is playing a role in the evolution of the ice cap.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/415 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Wohlleben, Trudy Monique Heidi |
| Contributors | Sharp, Martin (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), Bush, Andrew (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), Sharp, Martin (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), Bush, Andrew (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), England, John (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), Sutherland, Bruce (Physics) and (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), Swaters, Gordon (Mathematical and Statistical Sciences), Flato, Greg (Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Environment Canada, Victoria) |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 3405263 bytes, application/pdf |
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