Response of the longwave radiation over melting snow and ice to atmospheric warming

Abstract Parameterizing the incoming longwave radiation L ↓ in terms of the fourth power of the absolute temperature at the reference height is used in glaciology for several purposes. In this paper, the validity of this kind of parameterization is investigated for the Greenland ice sheer, both by o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Glaciology
Main Authors: Meesters, Antoon, van den Broeke, Michiel
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1997
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000002811
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000002811
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Summary:Abstract Parameterizing the incoming longwave radiation L ↓ in terms of the fourth power of the absolute temperature at the reference height is used in glaciology for several purposes. In this paper, the validity of this kind of parameterization is investigated for the Greenland ice sheer, both by observations and by numerical simulation with a meso-scale model, It is found that such a parameterization severely underestimates the increase of L ↓ in response to large-scale warming in an area where surface melting is important. This is explained by the systematic influence that is exerted on the shape of the temperature profiles by surface melting.