A small glacier as an index of regional mass balance: baby glacier, axel heiberg island, 1959–1992

Baby Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island, N.W.T., Canada is a small (0.6 km2), high‐latitude (79°N), high‐altitude (700–1200 m) glacier with a mass balance record extending from 1959–60 to the present. The record demonstrates shrinkage of the glacier, but a statistically significant trend is not evident. Correlations are strong between the mass balance of Baby Glacier and that of the nearby and much larger White Glacier, and also those of even larger, more distant glaciers. Thus programmes of measurement on small, simple ice bodies such as Baby Glacier can be representative of a large region. However, inter‐annual changes are more accentuated for Baby Glacier. Baby Glacier does not meet all of the usual criteria for a representative glacier, but it straddles the regional equilibrium zone, a fact which helps to offset the disadvantages of its small size and limited altitudinal range. The equilibrium zone deserves to be an important focus for studies of high‐arctic mass balance, with the aim of facilitating future measurement programmes which will rely on satellite remote sensing.