The Arctic archipelago of Svalbard has experienced among the greatest increases in temperature on Earth in the last few decades. The changing climatic conditions have a large impact on the glacier mass balance. This study makes use of a highresolution model dataset with data on climatic and glacier conditions on Svalbard from 1957 to 2018. The model dataset is used to analyse the spatiotemporal variability in glacier mass balance across Svalbard and linking those changes to long-term trends in meteorological conditions. The study is focused on the spatial gradients in trends between two regions in Svalbard, the coldest part of the archipelago, Nordaustlandet and the milder southern part of the main island Spitsbergen. The north eastern (NE) region is found to have a greater increase in annual air temperature over the simulation period with 5.5 °C compared to 3.5 °C for the south western (SW) region. The increase in annual summer temperatures is much smaller with a total increase of 1 °C for the NW and 1.5 °C for the SW. Both regions show a small, but significant, increase of precipitation. Relative humidity and cloud cover in the NE are increasing slightly over the time period, probably due to retreating sea ice cover. Glacier melt and runoff are increasing in both regions, which is contributing to significant negative trends in the mass balance. The increase in melt and run off is stronger in the SW than in the NE. There’s a strong correlation between summer air temperature and glacier mass balance, melt and runoff. Refreezing in the NE is decreasing much faster than in the SW. Refreezing is strongly correlated with annual air temperatures in the NE and not in the SW, probably due to lower temperatures in the NE region.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-383930 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Bergman, Ottar |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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