#Glims over a topic series#

GroveвЂ™s book provides a summary of the LIA-type events from all major regions over the world. Although the observational record is less available outside of the North Atlantic region, it is well studied that mountain glaciers advanced far beyond their modern limits in highlands of Asia, the Andes of South America, New Zealand, western North America and other ranges, e.g. But, it needs to be noted that firstly, the timing of cold conditions occurred differently from region to region, and secondly, throughout the span of the LIA, the climate was never monotonically cold or always favourable to glacial expansion but instead with sometimes disastrous shifts between warmth and coldness at centennial, decadal, or even annual scales.

, the beginning of the LIA is marked by the heavy rains, severe winters and harvest fails in 1315вЂ“1319 widespread in England. An increased variability of the climate, as well as other LIA-type events induced significant impacts on human society, as evidenced in existing historical documents. The expanded stages of mountain glaciers, cycles of excessive cold, severe droughts, hot summers, or unusual rainfall were captured in abundant historical documents such as artistic paintings, ship logs and agricultural records or diary from Mediterranean, alpine Europe and further north. A large amount of evidence of the LIA was assembled initially in the regions like Europe, Greenland and the Arctic, around the North Atlantic, e.g. However, despite the evidence of similar events from many places around the world, the occurrence of the LIA cannot be assumed synchronous in time and uniform across space.

#Glims over a topic series#

ДЇollowing the warm period of the вЂMedieval Climatic OptimumвЂ™, a dramatic series of glacier advances and retreats symbolized the cooling events of the LIA. The term has now been more formally and widely adopted to describe the period approximately from AD 1300 to 1850, characterized by lower temperature over most of the globe and growth of glaciers to a more advanced extent than that of prior and post the period. Although his original term to describe вЂan epoch of renewed but moderate glaciation that already has lasted about 4000 yearsвЂ™ has been overtaken as вЂ neoglacialвЂ™, in this report, it was noted that вЂвЂ¦ the glacier-oscillations of the last few centuries have been among the greatest that have occurred during the 4000-year periodвЂ¦вЂ™. The term вЂLittle Ice AgeвЂ™ was first introduced by Matthes in 1939 in Report of Committee on Glacierspublished on Eos. Prior to the twentieth century warming, the cold extremes of the Little Ice Age (LIA) appeared to be remote in humanвЂ™s memory and often easily ignored. The findings of glacier size and elevation as key local factors are representative and consistent with other studies.Д®xtending the timescale of climate variations from the past century to the past millennium allows us to see the broader context of the unprecedented global warming today.

With data sets of the Glacier Inventory of China and the presumed LIA glacial extents, we applied statistical models in a case study of the eastern Tian Shan to examine the impact of local topographic and geometric factors on glacier area changes. Here we present an overview of topics recently studied on the modern and LIA glaciers in the Tian Shan of the central Asia. As the most recent glacial event, the Little Ice Age (LIA, approximately AD 1300вЂ“1850) signifies the cold periods prior to the warming trend in the twentieth century. Documenting glacier distribution and research on glacier changes can provide insights and scientific support for water management in central Asia. High concentration of glaciers and meltwater from the Tian Shan contribute considerably to the freshwater resource in Xinjiang (China), Kyrgyzstan and nearby countries. The importance of mountain glaciers is best reflected in regions with limited precipitation, such as arid and semi-arid central Asia. Mountain glaciers are a reliable and unequivocal indicator of climate change due to their sensitive response to changes in temperature and precipitation.