Most Canadians know that you can remove ice faster from sidewalks and driveways if you add any dark substances (sand, kitty litter or wood ashes) and let the sunshine help soften the ice for easier removal.
Unfortunately scientists are finding the same principles apply when it comes to the accelerated rate our snowpacks and glaciers are melting at all over the world. The increasing temperatures are also causing the increased melting but it appears in the case of ice, the addition of small dark particles may lead to faster melting than increasing temperatures. While natural and industrial pollution have been around for many years it is the recent record wildfires that are being blamed for some of the rapid increases in the melting. There are a number of studies taking place around the world.
Research at the University of Northern British Columbia suggests most western Canadian glaciers will disappear within 80 years.
According to UNBC, an international team of scientists used a supercomputer at the university to calibrate their findings as they examine the impact of climate change on glaciers in Western Canada and around the world. Their work is the cover story in the latest issue of the journal Science.
In the paper titled Global glacier change in the 21st century: Every increase in temperature matters, the scientists describe that by the end of the century, the majority of Earth’s remaining glacier ice will exist in southeastern Alaska, the Northern Coast Mountains, Yukon, the northeastern Canadian and Russian Arctic and mountains that fringe the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, noted UNBC.
In Western Canada and elsewhere, glaciers provide cool, plentiful water during late summer when seasonal snow has melted or during years of drought. But continued emission of greenhouse gasses will decimate these frozen, freshwater reservoirs in the decades ahead, stated a UNBC article
“Sadly, our collective inaction on reducing our dependency on the use of fossil fuel has already committed our glaciers to substantial mass loss for the foreseeable future,” said Hakai affiliate and UNBC Professor Dr. Brian Menounos, co-author of the study and Canada Research Chair in Glacier Change.
To calibrate their projections, researchers used data processed by a supercomputer located at UNBC, that constructed digital elevation models based on satellite images. The computer, jointly funded by UNBC and the Tula Foundation, allowed researchers to analyze more than 440,000 images.
UNBC concluded the most recent results show that, irrespective of emission pathways, glaciers continue to lose substantial mass until about 2040. After 2040, however, glacier mass loss depends on the projected greenhouse gas emissions which ultimately controls global temperatures.
Another article this fall by Paula Duhatschek and Dan McGarvey from the University of Saskatchewan describes work being done at the Peyto Glacier in Banff National Park which is one of the longest-studied glaciers in the world and has been deteriorating since about the year 2000. Researchers say the extent of the loss has recently increased, with hot weather and fires accelerating the glacier’s death.
“A large and growing lake has formed where the base of the glacier once stood and last year, a new river and a waterfall have formed at the toe of the glacier, and icebergs that were previously floating in the glacier lake are nowhere to be seen. Extreme weather only makes things worse. This year, a combination of low winter snowfall, unseasonably hot weather and falling soot from wildfire smoke are coming together to create a glacial death spiral.”
Scientist John Pomeroy on the Alberta side have been reporting increased solar impacts using a pyranometer which measures solar radiation. “Typically in the summer, when the snow has melted away, glaciers absorb roughly 60 per cent of the sun’s rays but the last two summers have been a shock. Last summer we saw a 70 per cent of the solar radiation was being absorbed on the glacier surfaces. This summer we’ve seen 80 per cent absorbed,” While smoky days may be cooler it is the fly ash that can have a longer term impact and Pomeroy worries that’s contributing to a faster melt rate, but he says it’s tricky to measure the effect of wildfires on glaciers.
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