Surface ablation and its drivers along a west–east transect of the Southern Patagonia Icefield
Abstract Glaciers in the Southern Patagonia Icefield (SPI) have been shrinking in recent decades, but due to a lack of field observations, understanding of the drivers of ablation is limited. We present a distributed surface energy balance model, forced with meteorological observations from a west–e...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.92 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143021000927 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/jog.2021.92 2024-05-19T07:43:13+00:00 Surface ablation and its drivers along a west–east transect of the Southern Patagonia Icefield Bravo, Claudio Ross, Andrew N. Quincey, Duncan J. Cisternas, Sebastián Rivera, Andrés Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.92 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143021000927 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Journal of Glaciology volume 68, issue 268, page 305-318 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 journal-article 2021 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.92 2024-05-02T06:50:52Z Abstract Glaciers in the Southern Patagonia Icefield (SPI) have been shrinking in recent decades, but due to a lack of field observations, understanding of the drivers of ablation is limited. We present a distributed surface energy balance model, forced with meteorological observations from a west–east transect located in the north of the SPI. Between October 2015 and June 2016, humid and warm on-glacier conditions prevailed on the western side compared to dry and cold conditions on the eastern side. Controls of ablation differ along the transect, although at glacier-wide scale sensible heat (mean of 72 W m −2 to the west and 51 W m −2 to the east) and net shortwave radiation (mean of 54 W m −2 to the west and 52 W m −2 to the east) provided the main energy sources. Net longwave radiation was an energy sink, while latent heat was the most spatially variable flux, being an energy sink in the east (−4 W m −2 ) and a source in the west (20 W m −2 ). Ablation was high, but at comparable elevations, it was greater to the west. These results provide new insights into the spatial variability of energy-balance fluxes and their control over the ablation of Patagonian glaciers. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology Cambridge University Press Journal of Glaciology 1 14 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Glaciers in the Southern Patagonia Icefield (SPI) have been shrinking in recent decades, but due to a lack of field observations, understanding of the drivers of ablation is limited. We present a distributed surface energy balance model, forced with meteorological observations from a west–east transect located in the north of the SPI. Between October 2015 and June 2016, humid and warm on-glacier conditions prevailed on the western side compared to dry and cold conditions on the eastern side. Controls of ablation differ along the transect, although at glacier-wide scale sensible heat (mean of 72 W m −2 to the west and 51 W m −2 to the east) and net shortwave radiation (mean of 54 W m −2 to the west and 52 W m −2 to the east) provided the main energy sources. Net longwave radiation was an energy sink, while latent heat was the most spatially variable flux, being an energy sink in the east (−4 W m −2 ) and a source in the west (20 W m −2 ). Ablation was high, but at comparable elevations, it was greater to the west. These results provide new insights into the spatial variability of energy-balance fluxes and their control over the ablation of Patagonian glaciers. |
author2 |
Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bravo, Claudio Ross, Andrew N. Quincey, Duncan J. Cisternas, Sebastián Rivera, Andrés |
spellingShingle |
Bravo, Claudio Ross, Andrew N. Quincey, Duncan J. Cisternas, Sebastián Rivera, Andrés Surface ablation and its drivers along a west–east transect of the Southern Patagonia Icefield |
author_facet |
Bravo, Claudio Ross, Andrew N. Quincey, Duncan J. Cisternas, Sebastián Rivera, Andrés |
author_sort |
Bravo, Claudio |
title |
Surface ablation and its drivers along a west–east transect of the Southern Patagonia Icefield |
title_short |
Surface ablation and its drivers along a west–east transect of the Southern Patagonia Icefield |
title_full |
Surface ablation and its drivers along a west–east transect of the Southern Patagonia Icefield |
title_fullStr |
Surface ablation and its drivers along a west–east transect of the Southern Patagonia Icefield |
title_full_unstemmed |
Surface ablation and its drivers along a west–east transect of the Southern Patagonia Icefield |
title_sort |
surface ablation and its drivers along a west–east transect of the southern patagonia icefield |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.92 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143021000927 |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology volume 68, issue 268, page 305-318 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.92 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_start_page |
1 |
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14 |
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1799482937229443072 |