Alberta/BC Fires Dropping Soot On Canadian Rockies Glaciers, Accelerating Melt Rates
As the devastating fires around Jasper National Park filled the sky with smoke and ash, John Pomeroy was thinking of the region's famous — and melting — glaciers.
Just a week before the fires, the University of Saskatchewan hydrologist had been to the Athabasca Glacier located about 100 kilometres south of the town of Jasper, to collect measurements. His team found that the glacier had already melted about three metres in thickness since last September. "Which is plenty for a mostly winter period," he said.
What Pomeroy's been seeing at the glacier is not the bright white, snowy landscape they're often associated with — but rather a grimy and darkened surface. He believes it's likely that the glacier has been further darkened by the ash and soot from the latest fires. And the grime doesn't just look bad. According to Pomeroy, the glacier is melting faster because darker surfaces absorb more solar radiation than a clear, white surface would. "And the combination of that, along with the hot temperatures, puts a glacier into a death spiral."
According to measurements collected by Pomeroy's team, the Athabasca Glacier melted nearly nine metres last year, a record for the glacier that has been visited by millions of people and is an iconic stop on Alberta's scenic Icefields Parkway. Pomeroy is worried that, in addition to the summer's soaring temperatures, all the extra soot from the recent wildfires could result in that record melt being surpassed. "It puts these glaciers in a very perilous position yet again," he said.
EDIT
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/jasper-wildfire-ash-glacier-melt-1.7281100
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