Relationships Between Climate and Glacier Variations in Western North America

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Abstract ATM-9530691 Conway, Howard University of Washington Title: Relationships Between Climate and Glacier Variations in Western North America This award will support a study designed to establish what climate information can be extracted from the glacial record on the west coast of North America. Glaciers contain a non-linear transformation of past meteorological conditions and a systematic comparison of the behavior of these glaciers has potential to reveal considerable new information about past climate in the region. The Aleutian Low in the north Pacific has a steering effect on storm tracks such that condition are dry in Washington and wet in Alaska during years when the Pacific-North America index is positive; there is a negative correlation between the mass balance of Alaskan and Washington glaciers. The intensity and frequency of the Aleutian Low. This study will improve understanding of atmosphere-glacier processes. Although many high resolution meteorological observations are needed to accurately model atmosphere-glacier processes over short (annual) time scales, two or three variables should be sufficient to explain behavior over longer (decadal) time scales. Sensitivity studies will explore glacier response to climate (both mass changes and subsequent dynamic response) through physical models of decreasing complexity and establish the simplest workable model that accurately simulates behavior over decadal time scales. The objective is to reduce the dimensionality of the problem and build a realistic module that can be linked to the output of a global model.