Glacier fluctuations and glacier hypsometry on Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada, using remote sensing methodology

This research provides new insight into the linkages between glacier response and climate change. Over the last fifty-year period, glaciers on Bylot Island have experienced disparate patterns of termini fluctuation despite the juxtaposition of similar-sized glaciers with parallel aspects and neighboring accumulation areas. This confuses any attempt to generalize how the glaciers should, or have, responded to climatic events.;The research tests whether the non-synchronous response can be explained by integrating knowledge of glacier hypsometry, terminus fluctuation distances and temporal equilibrium line altitudes in two climate-warming scenarios. The hypsometric factor (HF) and hypsometric sensitivity (HS) are introduced to quantitatively assess the research hypothesis. The results demonstrate the HF is capable of explaining up to 25% of recession on a regional scale and 77% locally, and provides paired glacier comparisons where hypsometry appears to be the primary factor controlling the distance of terminus recession.