Jan Mayen glacier changes between 2000-2020 in historic, climatic, oceanic, and geographic context

Jan Mayen is a small, remote, glacierized volcanic island in the North Atlantic between Greenland, Svalbard, Iceland, and Scandinavia. Its most recent glacier map (RGI) is based on airphotos from 1949-1975, and only the glacier Sørbreen has previously been studied in detail. This thesis presents the first study of glacier fluctuations for the entire island, including the retreat of marine-terminating glaciers from historic maps since 1861 and the annual to decadal frontal variations of 16 of the island’s 20 glaciers from satellite imagery. Between 2000 and 2020, Jan Mayen lost 2.2 km2 or 2% of its ice area and had a frontal ablation of 0.20 km3. Glaciers retreated 20-460 m with an average annual retreat rate (-9±7 m/yr) slower than in the surrounding regions, while Jan Mayen’s temperature increased more. Correlation analysis with 18 climatic and oceanic parameters suggests that the main driver of Jan Mayen’s glacier fluctuations is PDD.