Abstract
Tropical glaciers reside in low-latitude regions on high mountains. Their mass and surface energy balance regimes differ from those of extratropical glaciers in terms of the dominant processes involved and seasonality; and their study allows insights into mid-tropospheric climate variations in the tropics. This chapter reviews the characteristics of tropical glaciers and physical modelling of their mass/energy balance components, using the glaciers on Kilimanjaro as a case study.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Kaser G (1999) A review of the modern fluctuations of tropical glaciers. Glob Planet Change 22:93–103
Hastenrath S (1991) Climate dynamics of the Tropics. Kluwer, Dordrecht
Asnani GC (1993) Tropical meteorology. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune
Kaser G, Osmaston H (2002) Tropical glaciers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Hardy DR, Vuille M, Braun C, Keimig F, Bradley RS (1998) Annual and daily meteorological cycles at high altitude on a tropical mountain. Bull Amer Met Soc 79:1899–1913
Rabatel A and 27 others (2013) Current state of glaciers in the tropical Andes: a multi-century perspective on glacier evolution and climate change. The Cryosphere 7:81–102
Cullen NJ, Sirguey P, Mölg T, Kaser G, Winkler M, Fitzsimons SJ (2013) A century of ice retreat on Kilimanjaro: the mapping reloaded. The Cryosphere 7:419–431
Mölg T, Cullen NJ, Hardy DR, Winkler M, Kaser G (2009) Quantifying climate change in the tropical mid-troposphere over East Africa from glacier shrinkage on Kilimanjaro. J Clim 22:4162–4181
Mölg T, Maussion F, Yang W, Scherer D (2012) The footprint of Asian monsoon dynamics in the mass and energy balance of a Tibetan glacier. The Cryosphere 6:1445–1461
Mölg T, Cullen NJ, Kaser G (2009) Solar radiation, cloudiness and longwave radiation over low-latitude glaciers: implications for mass balance modelling. J Glaciol 55:292–303
Mölg T, Cullen NJ, Hardy DR, Kaser G, Klok L (2008) Mass balance of a slope glacier on Kilimanjaro and its sensitivity to climate. Int J Climatol 28:881–892
Klok EJ, Oerlemans J (2002) Model study of the spatial distribution of the energy and mass balance of Morteratschgletscher, Switzerland. J Glaciol 48(163):505–518
Kaser G (2001) Glacier-climate interaction at low latitudes. J Glaciol 47:195–204
Francou B, Vuille M, Wagnon P, Mendoza J, Sicart JE (2003) Tropical climate change recorded by a glacier in the central Andes during the last decades of the 20th century: Chacaltaya, Bolivia, 16°S. J Geophys Res 108:D54154
Francou B, Vuille M, Favier V, Cáceres B (2004) New evidence for an ENSO impact on low-latitude glaciers: Antizana 15, Andes of Ecuador, 0° 28′ S. J Geophys Res 109:D18106
Mölg T, Kaser G (2011) A new approach to resolving climate-cryosphere relations: downscaling climate dynamics to glacier-scale mass and energy balance without statistical scale linking. J Geophys Res 116:D16101
Douglass DH, Christy JR, Pearson BD, Singer SF (2008) A comparison of tropical temperature trends with model predictions. Int J Climatol 28:1693–1701
Indeje M, Semazzi FHM, Ogallo LJ (2000) ENSO signals in East African rainfall. Int J Climatol 20:19–46
Webster PJ, Moore AM, Loschnigg JP, Leben RR (1999) Coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics in the Indian Ocean during 1997–98. Nature 401:356–360
Mölg T, Chiang JHC, Gohm A, Cullen NJ (2009) Temporal precipitation variability versus altitude on a tropical high mountain: observations and mesoscale atmospheric modelling. Quart J R Met Soc 135:1439–1455
IPCC (2007) Climate change 2007: the physical science basis. In: Solomon S, Qin D, Manning M, Chen Z, Marquis M, Averyt KB, Tignor M, Miller HL (eds.) Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Vuille M, Juen I, Kaser G (2008) Glacier mass balance variability in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru and its relationship with climate and the large-scale circulation. Glob Planet Change 62:14–28
Mölg T, Renold M, Vuille M, Cullen NJ, Stocker TF, Kaser G (2006) Indian Ocean zonal mode activity in a multicentury integration of a coupled AOGCM consistent with climate proxy data. Geophys Res Lett 33:L18710
Mölg T (2009) Climate change in the tropics derived from glacier-atmosphere interactions. A multi-scale study combining direct field measurements, observations, climate proxies, and numerical modeling. Habilitation thesis, University of Innsbruck
Mölg T, Hardy DR (2004) Ablation and associated energy balance of a horizontal glacier surface on Kilimanjaro. J Geophys Res 109:D16104
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mölg, T., Kaser, G. (2021). Tropical Glaciers. In: Fowler, A., Ng, F. (eds) Glaciers and Ice Sheets in the Climate System. Springer Textbooks in Earth Sciences, Geography and Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42584-5_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42584-5_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-42582-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-42584-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)