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Progress in Physical Geography, Vol. 26, No. 1, 76-95 (2002)
DOI: 10.1191/0309133302pp326ra
© 2002 SAGE Publications

Glacier mass balance: the first 50 years of international monitoring

Roger J. Braithwaite

School of Geography, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

The paper reviews measurements of glacier mass balance in the period 1946-95. There are data for 246 glaciers but most records are quite short. The available mass-balance data are biased to Western Europe, North America and the former USSR with too few measurements from other parts of the world. The data are also biased towards wetter conditions with too few data from the dry-cold glaciers that are typical of many regions. There is no sign of any recent global trend towards increased glacier melting, and the data mainly reflect variations within and between regions. The ‘direct method’ of measuring glacier mass balance is with stakes and snowpits but it is a very laborious way of measuring long-term glacier changes. Stake/snowpit measurements should be more integrated in future with geodetic and remote sensing methods, especially laser profiling, and with modelling.

Key Words: climate change • glacier • mass balance • monitoring • sea level • world


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