High-resolution modelling of the seasonal evolution of surface water storage on the Greenland Ice Sheet ...
Seasonal meltwater lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet form when surface runoff is temporarily trapped in surface topographic depressions. The development of such lakes affects both the surface energy balance and dynamics of the ice sheet. Although areal extents, depths, and lifespans of lakes can be i...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.20690 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/273621 |
| Summary: | Seasonal meltwater lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet form when surface runoff is temporarily trapped in surface topographic depressions. The development of such lakes affects both the surface energy balance and dynamics of the ice sheet. Although areal extents, depths, and lifespans of lakes can be inferred from satellite imagery, such observational studies have a limited temporal resolution. Here, we adopt a modelling-based strategy to estimate the seasonal evolution of surface water storage for the ~3600 km2 Paakitsoq region of W. Greenland. We use a high-resolution time dependent surface mass balance model to calculate surface melt, a supraglacial water routing model to calculate lake filling and a prescribed water-volume based threshold to predict rapid lake drainage events. This threshold assumes that drainage will occur through a fracture if V = Fa.H, where V is lake volume, H is the local ice thickness and Fa is the potential fracture area. The model shows good agreement between modelled lake locations ... |
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