Barnes Ice Cap and Baffin Island Glaciers Lose Snow Cover in July 2026

Barnes Ice Cap having in Landsat image with well developed melt channels from crest to margin of ice cap. Snow cover has been lost with over a month left in melt season. Barnes Ice Cap located in the center of Baffin Island, Canada covers an area of ~5731 km2 in 2021 (Rippin et al 2026). The ice cap is approximately 150 km long, 60 km wide and has maximum ice thickness of ~730 m and a maximum ice elevation of 1124 m above sea level (asl) at the summit of the north dome. They also noted that ICESat altimeter data indicated the thinning of the BIC at a mean rate of 0.75 m/year for the 2003–2009 period. Gilbert et al (2016) Figure 5 indicates the ELA was at 950 in the 1960-80 period and is at 1100 m from 2002-2010 this leaves a limited accumulation zone area. observe that Barnes Ice Cap lost its accumulation area beginning in 2010, in part due to the longer melt season. The glacier does tend to not retain snowcover the accumulation zone consists of superimposed ice at the crest.…