North Cascades National Park Complex glacier mass balance monitoring annual report, water year 2012: North Coast and Cascades Network
Riedel J and Larrabee MA. 2017. North Cascades National Park Complex glacier mass balance monitoring annual report, water year 2012: North Coast and Cascades Network. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/NCCN/NRDS—2017/1128. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Glaciers cover approximately 93.6 km2 in North Cascades National Park Service Complex (NOCA), and are a high-priority Vital Sign in the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) monitoring plan because they are sensitive, dramatic indicators of climate change and drivers of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (Riedel et al. 2008). Since 1993, seasonal volume changes at four NOCA glaciers have been monitored using methods developed as part of the NCCN Glacier Monitoring Protocol (Riedel et al, 2008). In this report, glacier monitoring data for water year (WY) 2012 are presented as point mass balance, provisional glacier-wide mass balances and provisional glacier contribution to summer streamflow. Point mass balances were measured at 18 sites on four glaciers for WY2012. Winter accumulation was above average (120-137 percent of average from 1993-2011), with the greatest accumulations measured on the west slopes. Summer balances were near average (92-109 percent of average). Point annual balances were below average ranging from -2.06 to +1.58 meters water equivalent. Glacier-wide mass balances, which are the integration of point mass balance values across the entire glacier surface were calculated. Winter accumulation was above average (122-144 percent of average), and summer melt was near or below average (91-103 percent of average). Glacier-wide annual balances were positive for all glaciers for the second consecutive years and for the 7th year since 1993. Glacier contribution to May-September runoff was estimated for four watersheds. In WY2012, meltwater originating from glaciers contributed 345 million m3. The percent of glacial contribution to streamflow was below average for the year.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Riedel, Jon; Larrabee, Michael
- Date of Issue
- 2017-11
- 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, PWR-toolkit, 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