The decaying near‐surface boundary layer of a retreating alpine glacier
Shaw TE, Buri P, McCarthy M, Miles ES, Ayala Á, Pellicciotti F. 2023. The decaying near‐surface boundary layer of a retreating alpine glacier. Geophysical Research Letters. 50(11), e2023GL103043.
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Author
Shaw, Thomas E.;
Buri, Pascal;
McCarthy, Michael;
Miles, Evan S.;
Ayala, Álvaro;
Pellicciotti, FrancescaISTA 
Department
Abstract
The presence of a developed boundary layer decouples a glacier's response from ambient conditions, suggesting that sensitivity to climate change is increased by glacier retreat. To test this hypothesis, we explore six years of distributed meteorological data on a small Swiss glacier in the period 2001–2022. Large glacier fragmentation has occurred since 2001 (−35% area change up to 2022) coinciding with notable frontal retreat, an observed switch from down‐glacier katabatic to up‐glacier valley winds and an increased sensitivity (ratio) of on‐glacier to off‐glacier temperature. As the glacier ceases to develop density‐driven katabatic winds, sensible heat fluxes on the glacier are increasingly determined by the conditions occurring outside the boundary layer of the glacier, sealing the glacier's demise as the climate continues to warm and experience an increased frequency of extreme summers.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2023-06-16
Journal Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Acknowledgement
This work was funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Grant 101026058. The authors acknowl-edge the dedicated collection of field data by many parties since 2001, including those acknowledged for the cited works on Arolla Glacier. The authors would like to thank Fabienne Meier, Alice Zaugg, Raphael Willi, Maria Grundmann, and Marta Corrà for assistance in the field for the summers of 2021 and 2022. Off-glacier data provided by Grand Dixence SA (Arolla) and MeteoSwiss are kindly acknowledged. Simone Fatichi is thanked for the provision and support in the use of the Tethys-Chloris model. We thank Editor Mathieu Morlighem and two anonymous reviewers whose comments have helped to improve the quality of the manuscript.
Volume
50
Issue
11
Article Number
e2023GL103043
ISSN
eISSN
IST-REx-ID
Cite this
Shaw TE, Buri P, McCarthy M, Miles ES, Ayala Á, Pellicciotti F. The decaying near‐surface boundary layer of a retreating alpine glacier. Geophysical Research Letters. 2023;50(11). doi:10.1029/2023gl103043
Shaw, T. E., Buri, P., McCarthy, M., Miles, E. S., Ayala, Á., & Pellicciotti, F. (2023). The decaying near‐surface boundary layer of a retreating alpine glacier. Geophysical Research Letters. American Geophysical Union. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023gl103043
Shaw, Thomas E., Pascal Buri, Michael McCarthy, Evan S. Miles, Álvaro Ayala, and Francesca Pellicciotti. “The Decaying Near‐surface Boundary Layer of a Retreating Alpine Glacier.” Geophysical Research Letters. American Geophysical Union, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023gl103043.
T. E. Shaw, P. Buri, M. McCarthy, E. S. Miles, Á. Ayala, and F. Pellicciotti, “The decaying near‐surface boundary layer of a retreating alpine glacier,” Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 50, no. 11. American Geophysical Union, 2023.
Shaw TE, Buri P, McCarthy M, Miles ES, Ayala Á, Pellicciotti F. 2023. The decaying near‐surface boundary layer of a retreating alpine glacier. Geophysical Research Letters. 50(11), e2023GL103043.
Shaw, Thomas E., et al. “The Decaying Near‐surface Boundary Layer of a Retreating Alpine Glacier.” Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 50, no. 11, e2023GL103043, American Geophysical Union, 2023, doi:10.1029/2023gl103043.
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