gesjGEOGRAPHY, ENVIRONMENT, SUSTAINABILITYGEOGRAPHY, ENVIRONMENT, SUSTAINABILITY2071-93882542-1565Russian Geographical Society10.15356/2071-9388_01v09_2016_02gesj-90Research ArticleGEOGRAPHYГеографияTHE GROSSER ALETSCHGLETSCHER DYNAMICS: FROM A “MINIMAL MODEL” TO A STOCHASTIC EQUATIONKislovAlexander V.

Department of Meteorology and Climatolog

avkislov@mail.ruMorozovaPolina A.morozova_polina@mail.ruLomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of GeographyRussian FederationRussian Academy of Science, Institute of GeographyRussian Federation201601032016912127Copyright © Kislov A., Morozova P.A., 20162016Kislov A., Morozova P.A.Kislov A., Morozova P.A.Данная работа распространяется под лицензией Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.https://ges.rgo.ru/jour/article/view/90

Mountain glaciers manifest oscillations at different time-scales. Apart from synchronous reaction to lasting changes, there is asynchronism between climatic forcing and observed anomalies of the glaciers. Based on general theories on the laws of temporal dynamics relating to massive inertial objects, the observed interannual changes of glacier length could result from the accumulation of small anomalies in the heat/water fluxes. Despite the fact that the original model of the dynamics of mountain glaciers is deterministically based on the physical law of conservation of water mass, the model of length change is interpreted as stochastic; from this perspective, it is the Langevin equation that incorporates the action of temperature anomalies and precipitation like random white noise. The process is analogous to Brownian motion. Under these conditions, the Grosser Aletschgletscher (selected as an example) is represented by a system undergoing a random walk. It was shown that the possible range of variability covers the observed interval of length fluctuations.

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The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest present.