Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.

Impact of climate variability on Alpine glaciers in northwestern Italy

TitleImpact of climate variability on Alpine glaciers in northwestern Italy
Publication TypeArticolo su Rivista peer-reviewed
Year of Publication2007
AuthorsCalmanti, Sandro, Motta L., Turco M., and Provenzale A.
JournalInternational Journal of Climatology
Volume27
Pagination2041-2053
ISSN08998418
Abstract

We analyzed glacier snout fluctuation data in Piedmont and Val d'Aosta (Italy) and studied the impact of climate variability on valley glaciers in the western Italian Alps. The study period covered about 70 years in the 20th century; we focused on the last 50 years where a large number of temperature and precipitation time series are available. Superposed onto a general recession trend, we detected strong oscillations on shorter time scales and we showed that they are significantly correlated with fluctuations in winter precipitation rates and average summer temperatures. On the basis of these results, we constructed a simple tagged-linear empirical stochastic model that explained upto 66% of the variance of the snout fluctuation data. The model produces reliable out-of-sample predictions of the impact of climate variability on the glaciers of the western Alps and it can be used to estimate the average response of Alpine glaciers to different scenarios of climate change, provided the morphology of the individual glaciers does not change completely. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society.

Notes

cited By 21

URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-37249007719&doi=10.1002%2fjoc.1500&partnerID=40&md5=9ca052fbc57039c014c5abee1975fd79
DOI10.1002/joc.1500
Citation KeyCalmanti20072041