Mountain glaciers at the end of the twentieth century: Global analysis in relation to climate and water cycle

Abstract

This work presents historical data on glacier mass balance. Until now, these data have been scattered throughout many publications, limiting their utility in the geosciences. The main objective of this contribution is to summarize data available in the digital data base of Dyurgerov (2002), and to discuss in some detail their quality and limitations. This paper is intended for glaciologists, climatologists, hydrologists, and other specialists interested in high-mountain and polar environments. Other potential users include those interested in the state of modern glaciers, their change on a global scale, or in changes occurring in any particular region.

Notes

I am deeply grateful to Mark Meier for the many hours he generously spent discussing and reviewing this work. I thank Professor Graham Cogley from Trent University, Petersborough, Canada for support with mass‐balance data and revision of the final data set. The completion of this work was made possible through personal communications with colleagues from many countries who generously supplied data. I express to them my deep gratitude. I am grateful to Dr. Kees van der Veen for many helpful comments, improvements, and editorial work with the manuscript. Completion of this work would have been impossible without financial support from the National Science Foundation, in particular through grants: OPP‐0081379, OPP‐0100120, and BCS‐0099236.