Glacier balance fluctuations and atmospheric circulation patterns over the Southern Alps, New Zealand

The links between climate and glacier change are investigated by examining the relationships between atmospheric circulation and glacier balance changes over a 17 year period. Altitudes of the end‐of‐summer snowlines made on some 48 index glaciers provide surrogates for mass balance, and mean atmospheric pressure maps were computer‐generated for the south‐west Pacific from long‐period meteorological station data. Pressure data are separated into accumulation and ablation seasons. The results show that atmospheric circulation patterns exert a strong control on glacier mass balance, with positive balances associated with anomalous south to south‐west flow and negative balances associated with enhanced north to north‐east flow. ©1997 by the Royal Meteorological Society. Int. J. Climatol., 17: 745–763 (1997) (No. of Figures: 16. No. of Tables: 4. No. of Refs: 39.)