The Thinning and Retreat of Pårteglaciären, Northern Sweden, during the Twentieth Century and Its Relation to Climate

Pårteglaciären in northern Sweden has a response time of ∼200 years, demonstrating a long response time for a continentally located glacier. Pårteglaciären is a polythermal valley glacier presently covering an area of 10 km2. Its size will be reduced another 60–70% if the present climate persists and will then only have ∼30% of its Little Ice Age maximum volume left. Future global warming will of course enhance melt rates, and the relative size and volume reduction will probably be even larger. Photogrammetric studies between 1963 and 1992 show a general thinning of the entire glacier except for the center one of the three cirques in the accumulation area, which seems to have a surface elevation in balance with present climate. Balanced flow studies performed using GPS and Ground Penetrating Radar at the outlet of the cirques gave negative values for two cirques and a positive value for the center cirque. The future Pårteglaciären will split up into three small glaciers, and only the center one will extend beyond its cirque.