Variations of ablation, albedo and energy balance at the tnargin of the Greenland ice sheet, Kronprins Christian

• Main Authors: Eastern North Greenl, Thomas Konzelmakn, Roger J. Braithwaite
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bala; Greenland; glacier; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.429.9833; http://www.igsoc.org/journal/41/137/igs_journal_vol41_issue137_pg174-182.pdf

ABSTRACT. A meteorological and glaciological experiment was carried out in July 1993 a t the margin of the. Greenl and ice sh ee t in KrOl"))Jrins. Christian Land, eastern north Greenl and. \Vlthm a small area (a bout 100 m-) d ally measurements were made on ten a bl ation stakes fi xed in " light " a nd " dark " ice and were compa red to each other. Simultaneo usly, the components of the energy bala nce, including net radiation, se nsible-heat flu x, la tent-heat flu x and conductive-heat flu x in the ice were determined. Global radiation, longwave incoming radiation a nd albedo were measured, a nd longwave outgoing radi ation was calculated by ass uming tha t the glacier surface was melting. Sensible- and latent-heat f1u xes were calculated from air temperature, humidity and wind speed. Conductive-heat flu x in the ice was es tima ted by temperature-profil e meas urem ents in th e uppermos t ice layer. N et radiation is the major source of a bla tion energy, and turbulcnt flu xes are smaller energy so urces by about three times, whil e heat flu x into the ice is a substantial heat sink, reducing energy avail a bl e fo r ice melt. Albedo vari es fro m 0.42 to 0.56 within the ex perimental site and causes rela ti vel y large differences in a bla ti on at stakes close to each other. Small-scale albedo variations sho uld th erefore be carefull y sampled for large-scale energy-balance calculations.