Temperature and radiation regime of glaciers on slopes of the Мount Elbrus in the ablation period over last 65 years

Abstract

The temperature and radiation regimes of the Elbrus mountain area were reconstructed for summer seasons of 1948–2013 using observational data obtained by expeditions of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Geography of the Lomonosov Moscow State University together with NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. This made possible to analyze in details the meteorological conditions and to calculate statistical characteristics of both the air temperature and the radiation components. The reanalysis data were compared with the observational ones for the purpose to estimate an applicability of the reanalysis techniques for reconstruction of the Elbrus temperature regime. Using the above data the temperature trends were analyzed for the last 65 years, and the hypothesis on possible physical mechanisms of intensive glacier melting of the Central Caucasus in the XXI century had been formulated.

Keywords

• гляциоклиматология
• горная метеорология
• климат эльбруса
• таяние ледников кавказа