Surface Pond Energy Absorption Across Four Himalayan Glaciers Accounts for 1/8 of Total Catchment Ice Loss.
- Miles ES School of Geography University of Leeds Leeds UK.
- Willis I Scott Polar Research Institute University of Cambridge Cambridge UK.
- Buri P Geophysical Institute University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks AK USA.
- Steiner JF Department of Geography University of Utrecht Utrecht Netherlands.
- Arnold NS Scott Polar Research Institute University of Cambridge Cambridge UK.
- Pellicciotti F Mountain Hydrology and Mass Movements Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL Birmensdorf Switzerland.
- 2019-04-30
Published in:
- Geophysical research letters. - 2018
English
Glaciers in High Mountain Asia, many of which exhibit surface debris, contain the largest volume of ice outside of the polar regions. Many contain supraglacial pond networks that enhance melt rates locally, but no large-scale assessment of their impact on melt rates exists. Here we use surface energy balance modeling forced using locally measured meteorological data and monthly satellite-derived pond distributions to estimate the total melt enhancement for the four main glaciers within the 400-km2 Langtang catchment, Nepal, for a 6-month period in 2014. Ponds account for 0.20 ± 0.03 m/year of surface melt, representing a local melt enhancement of a factor of 14 ± 3 compared with the debris-covered area, and equivalent to 12.5 ± 2.0% of total catchment ice loss. Given the prevalence of supraglacial ponds across the region, our results suggest that effective incorporation of melt enhancement by ponds is essential for accurate predictions of future mass balance change in the region.
- Language
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- English
- Open access status
- hybrid
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1029/2018GL079678
- PMID 31031450
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/58423
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