Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS): Global Patterns of
Changing Glaciers

Glaciers are responding to climate change; the overwhelming
majority of the world's glaciers are losing length, area, and mass.  But it
is not as simple as that.  The climatic parameters that are forcing glacier
responses are not changing homogeneously around the planet, so there exist
regional variations in glacier responses.  In some regions of the world,
rising precipitation more than offsets increased melting, so glaciers are
growing.  In many regions individual glaciers are thickening at high
elevations but thinning and shortening at low elevations.  Globally,
increased melting dominates, and in some regions glaciers are deteriorating
exceptionally rapidly because of simultaneous warming and drying.  Besides
those effects, glacier responses differ depending on glacier size and their
dynamic response time scales (hence, the period of past climate change
relevant to current responses).  Hypsometric and environmental
characteristics and chaotic or oscillatory dynamical behaviors of individual
glaciers are also locally important and can result in growth and shrinkage
of adjacent glaciers.   Beyond these details, what is most striking are the
regionally varied patterns of glacier responses.  I'll present some examples
of regional response patterns and seek explanations in climate models, which
will also be used to predict future changes in glaciers, glacier hazards,
and glacier meltwater resources.  One size does not fit all.