Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: results and insights from a new model
We present a newly developed 1-D numerical energy-balance and phase transition supraglacial lake model: GlacierLake. GlacierLake incorporates snowfall, in situ snow and ice melt, incoming water from the surrounding catchment, ice lid formation, basal freeze-up and thermal stratification. Snow cover...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2020-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of Glaciology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143020000076/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1811155807885066240 |
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| author | Robert Law Neil Arnold Corinne Benedek Marco Tedesco Alison Banwell Ian Willis |
| author_facet | Robert Law Neil Arnold Corinne Benedek Marco Tedesco Alison Banwell Ian Willis |
| author_sort | Robert Law |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We present a newly developed 1-D numerical energy-balance and phase transition supraglacial lake model: GlacierLake. GlacierLake incorporates snowfall, in situ snow and ice melt, incoming water from the surrounding catchment, ice lid formation, basal freeze-up and thermal stratification. Snow cover and temperature are varied to test lake development through winter and the maximum lid thickness is recorded. Average wintertime temperatures of −2 to $-30^{\circ }{\rm C}$ and total snowfall of 0 to 3.45 m lead to a range of the maximum lid thickness from 1.2 to 2.8 m after ${\sim }250$ days, with snow cover exerting the dominant control. An initial ice temperature of $-15^{\circ }{\rm C}$ with simulated advection of cold ice from upstream results in 0.6 m of basal freeze-up. This suggests that lakes with water depths above 1.3 to 3.4 m (dependent on winter snowfall and temperature) upon lid formation will persist through winter. These buried lakes can provide a sizeable water store at the start of the melt season, expedite future lake formation and warm underlying ice even in winter. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:40:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-907ed3d760874a79a72ad60497a193c5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:40:54Z |
| publishDate | 2020-06-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Glaciology |
| spelling | doaj.art-907ed3d760874a79a72ad60497a193c52023-03-09T12:40:55ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Glaciology0022-14301727-56522020-06-016636237210.1017/jog.2020.7Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: results and insights from a new modelRobert Law0Neil Arnold1Corinne Benedek2Marco Tedesco3Alison Banwell4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9545-829XIan Willis5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0750-7088Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UKScott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UKScott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UKLamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies, New York City, NY, USAScott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UK Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USAScott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UKWe present a newly developed 1-D numerical energy-balance and phase transition supraglacial lake model: GlacierLake. GlacierLake incorporates snowfall, in situ snow and ice melt, incoming water from the surrounding catchment, ice lid formation, basal freeze-up and thermal stratification. Snow cover and temperature are varied to test lake development through winter and the maximum lid thickness is recorded. Average wintertime temperatures of −2 to $-30^{\circ }{\rm C}$ and total snowfall of 0 to 3.45 m lead to a range of the maximum lid thickness from 1.2 to 2.8 m after ${\sim }250$ days, with snow cover exerting the dominant control. An initial ice temperature of $-15^{\circ }{\rm C}$ with simulated advection of cold ice from upstream results in 0.6 m of basal freeze-up. This suggests that lakes with water depths above 1.3 to 3.4 m (dependent on winter snowfall and temperature) upon lid formation will persist through winter. These buried lakes can provide a sizeable water store at the start of the melt season, expedite future lake formation and warm underlying ice even in winter.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143020000076/type/journal_articleglacier hydrologymelt-surfaceglacier modelling |
| spellingShingle | Robert Law Neil Arnold Corinne Benedek Marco Tedesco Alison Banwell Ian Willis Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: results and insights from a new model Journal of Glaciology glacier hydrology melt-surface glacier modelling |
| title | Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: results and insights from a new model |
| title_full | Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: results and insights from a new model |
| title_fullStr | Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: results and insights from a new model |
| title_full_unstemmed | Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: results and insights from a new model |
| title_short | Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: results and insights from a new model |
| title_sort | over winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the greenland ice sheet results and insights from a new model |
| topic | glacier hydrology melt-surface glacier modelling |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143020000076/type/journal_article |
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