North Cascades National Park Complex glacier mass balance monitoring annual report, water year 2010: North Coast and Cascades Network
Riedel J and Larrabee M. 2013. North Cascades National Park Complex glacier mass balance monitoring annual report, water year 2010: North Coast and Cascades Network. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/NCCN/NRDS—2013/453. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Glaciers cover approximately 109 km2 in North Cascades National Park Service Complex (NOCA), and are a high-priority Vital Sign in the North Coast and Cascades Network monitoring plan because they are sensitive, dramatic indicators of climate change and drivers of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Since 1993, seasonal volume changes at four NOCA glaciers have been monitored by tracking seasonal surface mass balance at four-to-five sites per glacier. Water year 2010 was near average for winter accumulation for Noisy and Silver glaciers and slightly below average for Sandalee and North Klawatti glaciers. Winter mass balance ranged from 3.1 (±0.25) to 2.2 (±0.27) m water equivalent (w.e.). Summer melting was below average for all four glaciers and significantly below average for Silver, North Klawatti and Sandalee glaciers, ranging between 63 and 92 percent of average. Summer melt ranged between -1.5 (±0.42) m w.e. for Silver and -3.2 (±0.30) m w.e. for Noisy. Net mass balances in 2010 were slightly positive at two glaciers and negative at two glaciers. North Klawatti Glacier had the largest positive net mass balance at 0.39 (±0.09) m w.e, while Sandalee Glacier had the largest net loss of glacier mass balance at-0.17 (±0.42) m w.e.. Positive mass balances observed in water year 2010 resulted in only minor increases to the cumulative mass balance; doing little to offset the significant loss that was observed during the past half century. Since 1993, the cumulative balance for the four monitored glaciers is between -11.11 m w.e. and -8.25 m w.e. Below average summer melt and near average snowpack led to below average glacial contribution to streamflow at NOCA. In four major watersheds glaciers contributed 286 M m3 (75.6 B gallons) of water to park lakes and streams. In Thunder Creek, glaciers provided about 24% of total summer runoff, whereas in the more arid, less glaciated Ross Lake basin glaciers contributed less than 4%. Ten-year remapping of Noisy and North Klawatti glaciers was completed in 2011 and led to significant adjustment to the base maps used for integration of point (stake) measurement to the entire glacier. Net vertical surface decline exceeded 60 m at the terminus of North Klawatti Glacier and 20 m on Noisy Glacier. Back-adjustment of data from 1993 - 2010 with the new hypsometry data resulted in minor changes to cumulative balance of -0.35 m w.e. on Noisy Glacier and +0.01 m w.e. on North Klawatti Glacier.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Riedel, Jon; Larrabee, Michael
- Date of Issue
- 2013-03
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NOCA , NRSS
- Keywords
- ablation, Aerial, annual report, Area, bulk density, climate change, Discharge, ELA, equilibrium line altitude, firn, Geology, Glacier, Glacier monitoring, Habitat, Hydrology, Ice, Mass Balance, mean water equivalent, Meltwater, Monitoring, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Noisy Glacier, North Klawatti Glacier, oblique, Photograph, Sandalee Glacier, Silver Glacier, snotel, snow depth, stake, Stream Flow, surface elevation, U.S. Geological Survey, Water Year
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Air and Climate | Weather and Climate | Weather and Climate , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Geomorphology | Glacial Features and Processes , Ecological Framework: Water | Hydrology | Surface Water Dynamics