National Park Service

Mount Rainier National Park Glacier Mass Balance Monitoring Annual Report, Water Year 2009 North Coast and Cascades Network National Park Service

The National Park Service began long-term monitoring of Nisqually and Emmons glaciers in Mount Rainier National Park (MORA) in 2003 (Figures 1-3). Monitoring includes direct field measurements of snow accumulation and melt at a sequence of stations placed at different elevations to estimate the mass balance of each glacier. Methods used here are directly comparable with those taken at four glaciers in North Cascades National Park Complex (NOCA) by the US National Park Service (NPS), at South Cascade Glacier by US Geological Survey, and globally. The purpose of this report is to describe and summarize data collected during the 2009 water year.