II Glaciation actuelle et climat du Caucase

Abstract : Glaciers and climate in the Western and Central Caucasus. After an abstract about the Caucasus climate, the authors show a statistical distribution of the glaciers, the genesis of the avalanches and a typology of the avalanchous regions. They show that the glaciers are climatological indicators, found the feeding-ablation balances and their annual changes during the last 10 years.Résumé : Après un bref rappel du climat de la Caucasie, les auteurs présentent une distribution statistique des glaciers, la genèse des avalanches et une typologie des régions avalancheuses. Ils montrent que les glaciers sont des indicateurs climatiques, établissent les bilans alimentation- ablation et les variations annuelles de ces bilans notamment au cours de la dernière décennie.Kotliakov V.M., Krenke A.N. II Glaciation actuelle et climat du Caucase. In: Revue de géographie alpine, tome 69, n°2, 1981. pp. 241-264

III Traits communs et particuliers du régime climatique des glaciers et de leurs oscillations

Abstract : General and specific features of glaciological regimes and their oscillations in the Western Alps and in the Caucasus. The both climate mountains are chiefly different by continental degree. The thermic secular change is marked by a continual cooling down in the high Caucasus, while Caucasian piedmonts, plains and mountains of the Western Europe were becoming warmer up to 1955-60. The Caucasus glaciers fronts are lower than the one A Ipine glaciers. They have a more diversified typology. The values of the ice-mass changes are rather similar. The both mountains have temperate glaciers (soaked with water) and cold glaciers (higher than 3 000 m in the Alps and 3.500 m in the Caucasus).Résumé : Les deux massifs diffèrent principalement par le degré de continentalité qui les affecte. L'évolution thermique séculaire est marquée dans le Haut Caucase par un refroidissement constant alors que les piémonts caucasiens, la haute et moyenne montagne alpine, les plaines d'Europe occidentale ont connu un réchauffement qui a pris fin vers 1955-60. Les glaciers caucasiens descendent moins bas que ceux des Alpes. Ils offrent une typologie plus complète. Les bilans alimentation- ablation sont assez semblables. Les deux montagnes possèdent des glaciers « chauds » et des glaciers « froids ».Goloubiev G.N., Davitaïa F.F., Krenke A.N., Touchinski G.N., Vivian Robert. III Traits communs et particuliers du régime climatique des glaciers et de leurs oscillations. In: Revue de géographie alpine, tome 69, n°2, 1981. pp. 319-328

Spatial distribution and synoptic conditions of snow accumulation in the Russian Arctic

Snow accumulation and associated synoptic conditions in the Russian Arctic are analysed based on snow depth data from 1950 to 2013 from the All-Russian Research Institute of Hydrometeorological Information—World Data Centre data set. The mean duration of snow coverage in the Russian Arctic is approximately eight to nine months. While the period of snowmelt is usually very short (one or two months), snow accumulates during most of the cold season (October–May). Snow accumulation is associated with negative anomalies of sea level pressure and positive anomalies of air temperature, which means increased cyclonic activity over the analysed region. The cyclones differ in intensity and localization, depending on the area of snowfall. In the western part of the Russian Arctic the cyclones and air masses that bring snowfall may originate from the North Atlantic, while in the eastern part they originate from the Bering Sea, Okhotsk Sea or the North Pacific. The cyclones that bring snowfall may also form locally along the zonal border between two different air masses: the very cold, polar, continental air originating from the Siberian High and the Arctic air from the north, which is often warmer and always more humid than the continental air