Laboratory-prepared fine-grained, initially isotropic polycrystalline ice samples were deformed under conditions of simple shear with simultaneous uniaxial compression at a constant temperature of −2.0°C. The aim was to investigate the effects of stress configuration on the flow rate of initially isotropic ice and on ice with subsequent stress and strain-induced anisotropy. Experiments were carried out for various combinations of shear and compression with shear stress ranging from 0 to 0.49 MPa and compressive stress ranging from 0 to 0.98 MPa, but such that for every experiment the octahedral shear stress was 0.4 MPa.

The strain curves resulting from the experiments clearly exhibit minimum strain rates while the ice is still isotropic, and steady-state tertiary strain rates along with the development of steady-state anisotropic fabric patterns. With constant octahedral stress (root-mean-square of the principal stress deviators), the minimum octahedral shear-strain rate has no dependence on stress configuration. This result supports the hypothesis that the flow of isotropic ice is dependent only on the second invariant of the stress tensor. This fundamental assumption has been used to provide a general description of ice-flow behaviour independent of the stress configuration (e.g. Nye, 1953; Glen, 1958; Budd, 1969).

For the tertiary flow of anisotropic ice, the octahedral strain rate is stress-state dependent as a consequence of the developed crystal-orientation fabric, which is also stress-state dependent, and which develops with strain and rotation. The present tests indicate that the enhancement factor for steady-state tertiary octahedral shear-strain rate depends on the shear or compression fraction and varies from about 10 for simple shear (with zero compression) to about 3 for uniaxial compression (with zero shear).

The ecological environment of the headwater area of the Yellow River, west China, is seriously deteriorating because of the harsh natural environment, weakened ecological systems and intensified human activities as well as regional climate changes. Forests and glaciers coexist in this area. Glaciers in the area have retreated over the last decade because of climate change. Most glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) tend to retreat during warm intervals and advance during cold intervals. Tree-ring records provide an important index for examining past climate changes. A total of 139 core samples from 97 living cypresses (Juniperus przewalskii) in the central region of the Yellow River headwater area, the Animaqin mountains, northeastern TP, were sampled from three sites that are close to each other. The chronologies were developed using the ARSTAN program. Analyses indicate that these tree-ring width records reflect the summer maximum temperature of the study area over the past 700 years. The tree-ring records and the glacier advances recorded by terminal moraines are compared. Inferred summer maximum temperatures suggest three cold periods during the Little Ice Age, around AD1500, 1700 and 1850. These cold intervals are consistent with the glacier moraine record from the region.

The chronology of post-Last Glaciol Maximum deglaciation in the northern Antarctic Peninsula region is discussed. It is concluded that, contrary to what was earlier believed, the deglaciation process here was largely out-of-phase with that in the Northern Hemisphere. Although, for global eustatic reasons, the marine-based glaciers may have retreated simultaneously with ice-melting in the Northern Hemisphere, the land-based glaciers retreated only slowly during the first halfoftlie Holocene, about 9000-5000 BP. This may have been due either to increased precipitation counterweighing ablation or to delayed warming. A distinct but rather brief Glaciol readvancc took place around 5000 BP, probably caused by a period of renewed cooling. It was followed by the Holocene climatic optimum, about 4000-3000 BP. This warm “hypsithermal” period thus came much later than its equivalent in the Northern Hemisphere, but it roughly coincided with the Milankovitchcan Holocene insolation maximum for these southern latitudes.

Numerical simulations using SNOWPACK, a snow-cover model, were carried out to confirm the model’s applicability to conditions in Hokkaido, Japan, where temperatures are fairly low and for 3 months the snow surface is usually dry except during occasional periods of rain or above-freezing temperatures. The simulations were conducted for Sapporo, Kitami and Niseko using meteorological data, and the results were compared with the observed snow profiles. In Sapporo, snow-profile observations were carried out every day for two winters. In Niseko, one of the most popular ski resorts in Japan, an avalanche accident occurred on 28 January 1998 and a snow pit was dug through the fracture line the next morning. The simulated snow profiles agreed fairly well with the observed ones. However, near the surface we observed depth hoar, which can be an important factor in avalanche release after successive snowfalls, that the model did not reproduce distinctly. Extending the model’s metamorphism laws with an expression of depth-hoar formation under a large temperature gradient, as formulated from an experiment by Fukuzawa and Akitaya (1993), the model reproduced the depth hoar adequately.

A 480 year record of the oxygen-isotope ratios, dust content, chemical species and net accumulation from ice cores drilled in 1989 90 on Dyer Plateau in the Antarctic Peninsula is presented. The continuous analyses of small (sub-annual) samples reveal well-preserved annual variations in both sulfate content and δ18O, thus allowing an excellent time-scale to be established.

This history reveals a recent pronounced warming in which the last two decades have been among the warmest in the last five centuries. Furthermore, unlike in East Antarctica, on Dyer Plateau conditions appear to have been fairly normal from AD 1500 to 1850 with cooler conditions from 1850 to 1930 and a warming trend dominating since 1930. Reconstructed annual layer thicknesses suggest an increase in net accumulation beginning early in the 19th century and continuing to the present. This intuitive conflict between increasing net accumulation and depleted δ18O (cooler climate) in the 19th century appears widespread in the peninsula region and challenges our understanding of the physical relationships among moisture sources, air temperatures and snow accumulation. The complex meteorological regime in the Antarctic Peninsula region complicates meaningful interpretation of proxy indicators and results in a strong imprint of local high-frequency processes upon the larger-scale climate picture.

Primary and secondary marine aerosol contributions to snow composition in Terra Nova Bay Antarctica, were evaluated by chemical analysis of surface and snow-pit samples. A seasonal pattern of marine inputs, very clear for secondary aerosol (mainly constituted by nssSO4- and methanesulphonic acid (MSA) coming from phytoplanktonic activity) and less evident for sea spray (Na+, CF, Mg2+) was shown by snow-pit samples. Altitude and distance from the coast were found to be the main parameters affecting seasonal change in the composition of snow collected within about a 200 km radius of the Terra Nova Bay Italian base. Using Na+ as a sea-spray indicator and MSA as a biogenic marker, fractionating aerosol effects (which are altitude-induced) as well as source contributions for Cl- and nssSO42- were found. A nssSO42- /MSA ratio of 2.7 (w/w), indicating their distribution from the common source dimethylsulphide, was calculated from Analysis of fresh summer snow collected in horizontal and vertical transects in northern Victoria Land.

The initiation and propagation of the 1993–95 surge of Bering Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A., was observed using ERS-1 synthetic aperture radar(SAR) imagery. Images were acquired before and during the surge, between November 1992 and October 1993. Terrain-corrected and co-registered imagery was used to measure the propagation of the surge front. Surface undulations interpreted to be evidence of accelerated flow, indicating surge initiation in late winter, were observed in the 26 March 1993 image. From 19 May to 25 August 1993, the mean propagation velocity of the surge front was 90 m d−1. The surge reached the terminus shortly after 25 August 1993. The central area of the calving terminus then advanced into proglacial Vitus Lake at a mean rate of 19 md−1 between 9 August and 18 October 1993. Feature matching was used to measure discrete velocity vectors between 9 August and 13 September; the vectors were kriged onto a uniform grid and used to compute the principal strain rates. Shattering of the calving front and dramatically increased iceberg calving were accompanied by high compressive strain rates immediately up-glacier from the calving front.

The effect of sample and grain size on the uniaxial compressive strength of polycrystalline ice has been investigated at -10°C, at a strain-rate of 5.5 × 10-4 s-1 The results show (a) that the sample size must be 12 or more times greater than the grain size for ft to have no effect on the strength and (b) that there is no significant dependence of compressive strength on grain size, within the grain-size range of 0.6 to 2.0 mm.

Gridded distributions of the annual mean temperature and annual total accumulation for Greenland are presented. They are objectively derived by deterministic and statistical interpolation from measurements at coastal stations and at locations on the ice sheet. They can be used not only for driving cryospheric models, but also for verifying atmospheric simulations.

The decrease in summer sea-ice extent in the Arctic Ocean opens shipping routes and creates potential for many marine operations. For these activities accurate predictions of sea-ice conditions are required to maintain marine safety. In an attempt at Arctic sea-ice prediction, the summer of 2010 is selected to implement an Arctic sea-ice data assimilation (DA) study. The DA system is based on a regional Arctic configuration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm) and a local singular evolutive interpolated Kalman (LSEIK) filter to assimilate Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) sea-ice concentration operational products from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Based on comparisons with both the assimilated NSIDC SSMIS concentration and concentration data from the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility, the forecasted sea-ice edge and concentration improve upon simulations without data assimilation. By the nature of the assimilation algorithm with multivariate covariance between ice concentration and thickness, sea-ice thickness fields are also updated, and the evaluation with in situ observation shows some improvement compared to the forecast without data assimilation.

A theoretical model and an experimental model of surge motions of an ice floe due to regular waves are presented. The theoretical model is a modified version of Morrison’s equation, valid for small floating bodies. The experimental model is implemented in a wave basin at a scale 1:100, using a thin plastic disc to model the floe. The processed experimental data display a regime change in surge amplitude when the incident wavelength is approximately twice the floe diameter. It is shown that the theoretical model is accurate in the high-wavelength regime, but highly inaccurate in the low-wavelength regime.

The rare melt features in the GISP2, central Greenland deep ice core have decreased in frequency over the most recent 7000 years. Calibration of this change in melt frequency against modern spatial variation of melt frequency and temperature in central Greenland, and against modern temporal variability of temperatures in central Greenland, indicates that mean mid-summer temperatures have cooled over the most recent 7000 years, probably by slightly more than l°C if variability of summer temperatures has not changed. Comparison to GRIP isotopic records from central Greenland and to the melt record from the Agassiz Ice Cap, Arctic Canada, suggests some seasonal and regional coherence for this cooling signal, as well as for a cold event about 8000-8500 BP.

Ice-platelet clusters modify the heat and mass balance of sea ice near Antarctic ice shelves and provide a unique habitat for ice-associated organisms. The amount and distribution of these ice crystals below the solid sea ice provide insight into melt rates and circulation regimes in the ice-shelf cavities, which are difficult to observe directly. However, little is known about the circum-Antarctic volume of the sub-sea-ice platelet layer, because observations have mostly been limited to point measurements. In this study, we present a new application of multi-frequency electromagnetic (EM) induction sounding to quantify platelet-layer properties. Combining in situ data with the theoretical response yields a bulk platelet-layer conductivity of 1154 ± 271 mS m–1 and ice-volume fractions of 0.29-0.43. Calibration routines and uncertainties are discussed in detail to facilitate future studies. Our results suggest that multi-frequency EM induction sounding is a promising method to efficiently map platelet-layer volume on a larger scale than has previously been feasible.

The application of passive microwave radiometry to the remote sensing of snow properties is based on the ratio of emitted to scattered portions of the upwelling radiation. Increased scattering is indicative of increased snow amount, i.e. the number of snow grains present. However, scattering is also directly proportional to snow grain-size for a given snow amount. Current snow cover retrieval algorithms produce inaccurate results when snow grain-sizes are unusually large. Therefore, it is necessary to characterize snow grain-size on a regional scale (and perhaps local scale in extreme situations) in order to adjust passive microwave algorithms. Preliminary analysis indicates that: (1) algorithms are not as sensitive to the presence of large grain-sizes as the initial theory had indicated; (2) standard deviation of grain-size diameters throughout the total snow cover may often be less than 0.5 mm, thus average grain-size data may often serve to characterize the detailed stratigraphy of the total snow cover; (3) conditions in subfreezing snow which produce grain-sizes that greatly exceed a mean diameter value of 1–2 mm result from snow cover/climate relationships which can be modelled/monitored on a regional scale. A preliminary method is investigated for selecting snow retrieval algorithms according to prevailing regional-scale grain-size.

Currently-available evidence of 20th-century warming from glaciers and permafrost is briefly reviewed. The signals are clear and strong: warming of polar firn and permafrost, and mass losses of glaciers at lower latitudes, were most striking towards the middle of the century. The easily observable length-reduction of mountain glaciers confirms the global character of the evolution. A probably intermittent reversal of the trend was observed in places after about 1950.

Distance of maximum avalanche runout is calculated by four topographical factors. An empirical equation found by regression analysis of 206 avalanches is used to predict the maximum runout distance in terms of average gradient of the avalanche path (angle α). The correlation coefficient R = 0.92, and the standard deviation of the residuals SD = 2.3°.

The avalanche paths are further classified into different categories depending on confinement of the path, average inclination of the track 6, curvature of the path y", vertical displacement Y, and inclination of rupture zone Q. The degree of confinement is found to have no significant effect on the runout distance expressed by a. Best prediction of runout distance is found by a classification based on 5 and Y. For avalanches with β <30° and Y > 900 m, R = 0.90 and SD = 1.02°.

The population of avalanches is applied to a numerical/dynamical model presented by Perla and others (1980). Different values for the friction constants v and M/DY are computed, based on the observed extent of the avalanches. The computations are supplied by velocity measurements v from a test avalanche where Y = 1 000 m, and vmax = 60 m s−1. The best fitted values are μ = 0.25 and M/DY = 0.5, which gives R = 0.83 and SD = 3.5°.

In order to reconstruct climatic and environmental changes in the Canadian Arctic, an 85 m deep ice core drilled in 1995 on Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island, was analyzed for ions and δ18O. In addition to the core, snow-pit samples collected in 1994 and 1995 were also analyzed. Elution of ions caused by summer melting was observed in the pits. Due to the heavy summer melting on this ice cap, seasonal variations of ion chemistry and δ18O were not always present in the core. Comparisons of this core with a previously reported core drilled 2.5 maway show that the noise contained in single annual time series is 40–50% for ions and 25% for δ18O. the ice-core data, however, provide us with a reasonable proxy record of climatic and environmental changes during the last two centuries on better than a decadal basis. Sulfate and nitrate concentrations started to increase around 1900 and 1960, respectively, due to anthropogenic influx transported from the industrialized regions in North America. Sea-salt concentrations began to increase around the mid-19th century and were elevated throughout the 20th century. This trend of sea-salt concentrations is similar to that of melt percentage, which is a measure of summer temperature. Warming after the Little Ice Age would have reduced the sea-ice extent and led to the elevated sea-salt concentrations on Penny Ice Cap.

This paper presents a comparative study at a small and highly glacierized catchment area in the Austrian Alps, where runoff under the extreme hot and dry conditions of summer 2003 was simulated based on two different glacier extents: the 2003 glacier extent and the 29% larger 1979 extent. Runoff was simulated applying the hydrological water balance model PREVAH at a high temporal resolution. For this purpose, the catchment area was subdivided into hydrological response units based on digital elevation model and land-cover data. The model was driven by meteorological data from the observatory at Hoher Sonnblick, situated at the highest point of the catchment area (3106ma.s.l.). We were interested in the effect the change in glacier extent would have on the annual and monthly water balance and the hydrograph of hourly discharges. Results of the 2003 and the hypothetical 1979 simulation show main differences in runoff for the period July–August depending on a higher ice-melt contribution. Due to the same meteorological input, both simulations calculate the same snow accumulation and snowmelt. Annual discharge in 1979 would have been 12% higher and hourly runoff up to 35% higher than in 2003.

An ice core from the Nevado Huascaran col in the Cordillera Blanca of northern Peru contains high-resolution time series of dust concentrations and size distributions since the end of the last glacial stage. A large dust peak, dated ∼4500 years ago, is contemporaneous with a widespread and prolonged drought that apparently extended from North Africa to eastern China, evidence of which occurs in historical, archeological and paleoclimatic records. This event may have been associated with several centuries of weak Asian/Indian/African monsoons, possibly linked with a protracted cooling in the North Atlantic. During the second half of the 20th century, high austral-summer dust concentrations in the Huascaran record are significantly correlated with atmospheric conditions, such as sea-level pressure and zonal wind velocities that are consistent with El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) indices, and with aridity in North Africa, southwest Asia and the Middle East. Therefore, the dominant submicron fraction of the dust may have been transported by more intense northeasterly trade winds from the African dry regions across the tropical Atlantic during a period of frequent and/or intense ENSO activity. The proposed ENSO conditions that may have been linked with drought in the monsoon region may also have contributed to aridity in tropical South America, including the Cordillera Blanca.

The topographic effects of differential terrain illumination in optical satellite imagery of rugged mountainous regions have serious consequences for qualitative and quantitative analysis for various snow applications. Therefore, effective removal or minimization of topographic effects is necessary in satellite image data of mountainous regions. Different methods for topographic corrections, including C-correction, Minnaert corrections (including slope) and slope-matching method, are analysed in the context of snow reflectance. Combination of dark-object subtraction models DOS1 and DOS3 is used for image-based atmospheric corrections while considering the effect of Rayleigh scattering on the transmissivity in different spectral bands of AWiFS and MODIS image data. The performance of different models is evaluated using (1) visual analysis, (2) change in snow reflectance on sunny and shady slopes after the corrections, (3) validation with in situ observations and (4) graphical analysis. The results show that the slope-matching technique could eliminate most of the shadowing effects in Himalayan rugged terrain and correctly estimate snow reflectance from AWiFS and MODIS imagery. The validation of results with in situ observations for both types of imagery suggests that all other methods significantly underestimate reflectance values after the corrections.