Secular trends in variations of Spitsbergen ice resources

Abstract

A relationship is established between many-year variations of the total budget of Spitsbergen glacier mass and variations of the solar radiation reaching the upper atmospheric boundary in the Northern Hemisphere per year. A regression equation was used to evaluate the total mass budget of glaciers Austre Broggebreen and Midre Lovenbreen over period from 1850 to 2050. The trend in the decrease of ice resources in Spitsbergen is show to be related with an increase in the internlatitudinal heat exchange and the greenhouse effect because of the accumulation of heat from incoming solar radiation.