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Title: Sensitivity of glaciers and small ice caps to greenhouse warming

Journal Article · · Science (Washington, D.C.); (United States)

Recent field programs on glaciers have supplied information that makes simulation of glacier mass balance with meteorological models meaningful. An estimate of world-wide glacier sensitivity based on a modeling study of 12 selected glaciers situated in widely differing climatic regimes shows that for a uniform 1 K warming the area-weighted glacier mass balance will decrease by 0.40 meter per year. This corresponds to a sea-level rise of 0.58 millimeter per year, a value significantly less than earlier estimates.

OSTI ID:
6955467
Journal Information:
Science (Washington, D.C.); (United States), Vol. 258:5079; ISSN 0036-8075
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English