What is MOSJ – environmental monitoring of Svalbard & Jan Mayen?

MOSJ (Environmental Monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen) is an environmental monitoring system and part of the Government’s environmental monitoring in Norway. An important function is to provide a basis for seeing whether the political targets set for the development of the environment in the North are being attained.

How has the Svalbard glacier mass balance changed over time?

Since the first estimates of Svalbard-wide glacier mass balance were made in the early 2000s, there has been great progress in remote sensing and modeling of mass balance, existing field records have been extended, field records at new locations have been added, and there has been considerable environmental change.

Does the Svalbard archipelago have a negative mass balance?

However, the main conclusion one can reach from the body of GRACE analyses is that all find a negative total mass balance for the Svalbard archipelago, with values ranging from −0.46 to −0.09 m w.e. a –1, or −15.5 to −3.0 Gt a –1 (Table 2), even if the error range for some of the estimates extends them into the positive territory.

How much refreezing does Svalbard have?

For all of Svalbard glaciers, specific refreezing amounts to about 0.22 m w.e. a –1, i.e., corresponding to about 25% of the annual accumulation (Aas et al., 2016; Østby et al., 2017; Van Pelt et al., 2019).

Does ice affect the temperature in Svalbard?

The temperature in Svalbard is strongly affected by ice, which can vary widely from year to year. Hence, the seasons with ice present show greater variation in average temperature from year to year. Trends in seasonal mean temperatures at Svalbard Airport shows a temperature increase for all four seasons.

Does Svalbard have a trend toward negative CMB?

Although there is agreement on a tendency toward more negative CMB, trend analysis reveals its significance is largest in southern Svalbard, contributing to a Svalbard-wide trend of −0.06 m w.e. a –1 decade –1 (Van Pelt et al., 2019).