Glossary of Glacier Mass Balance and Related Terms

Description

Cogley, J.G., R. Hock, L.A. Rasmussen, A.A. Arendt, A. Bauder, R.J. Braithwaite, P. Jansson, G. Kaser, M. Möller, L. Nicholson and M. Zemp Glossary of Glacier Mass Balance and Related Terms, IHP-VII Technical Documents in Hydrology No. 86, IACS Contribution No. 2, UNESCO-IHP, Paris, 2011 - 124 p.This glossary, produced by a Working Group of the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS), is the first comprehensive update of glacier mass-balance terms for more than 40 years. The mass balance of a glacier is a measure of the change in mass of the glacier, or part of it, over a period of time. Mass-balance data help to explain why a particular glacier system may be advancing or retreating and what climate drivers (e.g. decreased snow accumulation; increased surface melt) are responsible for the changes. Fluctuations of the size (most typically length, but also area and/or surface elevation) are observed for several thousand of the well over 100,000 glaciers distributed globally from equatorial mountains to polar ice sheets. However regular annual mass-balance measurements are made on fewer than 200 glaciers. Mass-balance information is essential for defining the links between past, present and future climate changes and changes to glaciers in assessments such as those made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Having a systematic, concise and unambiguous mass-balance terminology is a critical part of this.