Energy and Mass Balance at the Surface in the Wet Snow Zone of Northeast Glacier, Antarctic Peninsula

• Main Author: Christoph Schneider I
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Marguerite; Marguerite Bay; McClary Glacier; Northeast Glacier; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.531.8233; http://www.klimageo.rwth-aachen.de/fileadmin/klima-data/literatur/Schneider-EMB-NortheastGlacier_AntarcticPeninsula-Polarforschung67_2000.pdf

Summary: This paper investigates the mass balance of the snow cover in the wet snow zone and the energy balance during the summer on Northeast Glacier located at 67 °W and 68 "S in Marguerite Bay, Antarctic Peninsula. Three automatie weather stations (AWS) were operared on Northeast ancl the nearby McClary Glacier in summer 1994/95. Furthermore, snow cover characteristics and the snow cover development were observed by mcans of snow pits and ablation stakes. During the winter accumulation varies spatially to a high degree. Readings in snow pits and at ablation stakes give values between 300 mm ancl 400 mm of water equivalent. The ablation during sununer time correlates with mean air temperature or altitude. In the lowennost parts of the glaciers, ablation is 200-400 mm of water equivalent. The observations show that an ablation zone developed on Northeast Glacier at the end of the summer 1994/95. The equilibrium line altitude then was at 110m above sca level. There was good agreemcnt between the observed snow melt in summer and snow melt caleulated from micro-meteorologicalmeasurements by means of