Recent trends in annual snowline variations in the northern wet outer tropics: case studies from southern Cordillera Blanca, Peru

Abstract

This paper describes the changes in the annual maximum snowlines of a selected set of mountain glaciers at the southern end of the Cordillera Blanca between 1984 and 2015 using satellite images. Furthermore, we analysed the existing glacier records in the Cordillera Blanca since the last glacial maximum to understand the evolution of glaciers in this region over a few centuries. There was a rise in the snowline altitude of glaciers in this region since the late 1990s with a few small glacier advances. Historical to the present El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) records were also analysed to understand whether there was a teleconnection between the glacier fluctuations in the region and the phase changes of ENSO and PDO. We also assessed the variations in three important climatic parameters that influence the glacier retreat—temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity—over a few decades. We calculated the anomalies as well as the seasonal changes in these variables since the mid-twentieth century. There was an increase in temperature during this period, and the decrease in precipitation was not so prominent compared with the temperature rise. There was an exceptionally higher increase in relative humidity since the early 2000s, which is relatively higher than that expected due to the observed rate of warming, and this increase in humidity is believed to be the reason behind the unprecedented rise in the snowline altitudes since the beginning of the twenty-first century.