Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit,, North and West Alaska CESU

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The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Alaska Science Center (ASC) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research to enhance methods in resolving glacier mass balance and constrain their relationship with ice dynamics for several Alaskan glaciers. This work will provide a common processing methodology between the long-term mass balance records collected at three USGS benchmark glaciers and among other glaciers (e.g., Eklutna and Taku glaciers) with appropriate data records. The research serves an important purpose in assessing rates of sea level change from terrestrial ice loss both directly and through validation of remote sensing products. On a seasonal basis USGS conducts fieldwork on 4 benchmark glaciers to resolve ongoing changes in mass balance. USGS has developed an algorithm to process this data, but it has not been expanded to include all glaciers in the benchmark group, nor glaciers outside USGS domain that are measured using similar protocol. Additionally, no effort exists to link these balance records to simultaneously acquired records of surface motion.

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