Sensitivity of glaciers and small ice caps to greenhouse warming

Science. 1992 Oct 2;258(5079):115-7. doi: 10.1126/science.258.5079.115.

Abstract

Recent field programs on glaciers have supplied information that makes simulation of glacier mass balance with meteorological models meaningful. An estimate of world-wide glacier sensitivity based on a modeling study of 12 selected glaciers situated in widely differing climatic regimes shows that for a uniform 1 K warming the area-weighted glacier mass balance will decrease by 0.40 meter per year. This corresponds to a sea-level rise of 0.58 millimeter per year, a value significantly less than earlier estimates.