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CU study: Soot suspect in mid-1800s Alps glacier retreat
Sep 2nd
The research, published Sept. 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may help resolve a longstanding scientific debate about why the Alps glaciers retreated beginning in the 1860s, decades before global temperatures started rising again.
Thomas Painter, a snow and ice scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is lead author of the study, and co-authors include Waleed Abdalati, Director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Glacier records in the central European Alps dating back to the 1500s show that between 1860 and 1930, loosely defined as the end of the Little Ice Age in Europe, large valley glaciers in the Alps abruptly retreated by an average of nearly 0.6 mile (1 kilometer). Yet weather in Europe cooled by nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) during that time. Glaciologists and climatologists have struggled to understand the mismatch between the climate and glacier records.
“Something was missing from the equation,” Painter said.
To investigate, he and his colleagues turned to history. In the decades following the 1850s, Europe was undergoing a powerful economic and atmospheric transformation spurred by industrialization. Residents, transportation, and perhaps most importantly, industry in Western Europe began burning coal in earnest, spewing huge quantities of black carbon and other dark particles into the atmosphere.
When black carbon particles settle on snow, they darken the surface. This melts the snow and exposes the underlying glacier ice to sunlight and relatively warm air earlier in the year, allowing more and faster melt.
To determine how much black carbon was in the atmosphere and the snow when the Alps glaciers began to retreat, the researchers studied ice cores drilled from high up on several European mountain glaciers. By measuring the levels of carbon particles trapped in the ice core layers and taking into consideration modern observations of the distribution of pollutants in the Alps, they could estimate how much black carbon was deposited on glacial surfaces at lower elevations, where levels of black carbon tend to be highest.
The team then ran computer models of glacier behavior, starting with recorded weather conditions and adding the impact of lower-elevation black carbon. By including this impact, the simulated glacier mass loss and timing finally were consistent with the historic record of glacial retreat, despite the cool temperatures of the time.
“This study uncovers some likely human fingerprints on our changing environment,” Abdalati said. “It’s a reminder that the actions we take have far-reaching impacts on the environment in which we live.”
“We must now look closer at other regions on Earth, such as the Himalaya, to study the present-day impacts of black carbon on glaciers,” said Georg Kaser, a study co-author from the University of Innsbruck and lead author of the Working Group I Cryosphere chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s upcoming Fifth Assessment Report.
Other institutions participating in the study include the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of California, Davis.
CIRES is a joint institute of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and CU-Boulder.
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N. Boulder rec center to be closed from Aug. 24 to Sept. 1
Aug 17th
The North Boulder Recreation Center (NBRC), located at 3170 Broadway, will be closed for maintenance from Saturday, Aug. 24, through Sunday, Sept. 1. The recreation center will reopen on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 2, from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Annual maintenance closures allow for deep cleaning, painting, and major repair and replacement projects at the recreation center.
On Saturday, Aug. 24, and Sunday, Aug. 25, the EBCC will be the only indoor lap pool open to the public due to an overlap of the South Boulder Recreation Center and NBRC annual maintenance closures. The Boulder Reservoir, Spruce Pool and Scott Carpenter Pool will be open during regular hours throughout the NBRC closure.
The North Boulder Recreation Center’s childcare hours will be relocated to the East Boulder Community Center (EBCC) Monday through Friday from 8:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The EBCC is offering additional hours on Saturdays and Sundays during the NBRC closure. The South Boulder Recreation Center’s dance, fitness and weight rooms will be open during normal hours beginning on Monday, Aug. 19. Visit www.boulderparks-rec.org for a full schedule.
For more information, contact Whitney Oftedahl, Parks and Recreation, at 303-413-7214.
City sponsors back-to-school resource fair Aug. 21
Aug 14th
Free or reduced lunch costs, free dental and health care screening
The City of Boulder is sponsoring a back-to-school resource fair on Wednesday, Aug. 21, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m., at Manhattan Middle School, 290 Manhattan Drive in Boulder.
Parents may enroll their children in the free and reduced lunch program, get free dental and health screening for their children and learn about other family resources in the community. The event is open to all families in the City of Boulder and Boulder Valley School District.
For more information, contact Kathryn Coleman, manager of School-Based Services at 303-441-3344.
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