Brief communication: Recent estimates of glacier mass loss for western North America from laser altimetry

Abstract

Glaciers in western North American outside of Alaska are often overlooked in global studies because their potential to contribute to changes in sea level is small. Nonetheless, these glaciers represent important sources of freshwater, especially during times of drought. Differencing recent ICESat-2 data from a digital elevation model derived from a combination of synthetic aperture radar data (TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X), we find that over the period 2013-2020, glaciers in western North America lost mass at a rate of -12.3±3.5Gtyr-1. This rate is comparable to the rate of mass loss (-11.7±1.0Gtyr-1) for the period 2018-2022 calculated through trend analysis using ICESat-2 and Global Ecosystems Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) data.