An 11-year record of wintertime snow-surface energy balance and sublimation at 4863 m a.s.l. on the Chhota Shigri Glacier moraine (western Himalaya, India)

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: A. Mandal, T. Angchuk, M. F. Azam, A. Ramanathan, P. Wagnon, M. Soheb, C. Singh
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2022
• Subjects: Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Geology; QE1-996.5; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3775-2022; https://doaj.org/article/542586ed2127474a893ecce96aaa0a9a

Analysis of surface energy balance (SEB) at the glacier/snow surface is the most comprehensive way to explain the atmosphere–glacier/snow interactions, but that requires extensive data. In this study, we have analysed an 11-year (2009–2020) record of the meteorological dataset from an automatic weather station installed at 4863 <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow class="unit"><mi mathvariant="normal">m</mi><mspace linebreak="nobreak" width="0.125em"/><mi mathvariant="normal">a</mi><mo>.</mo><mi mathvariant="normal">s</mi><mo>.</mo><mi mathvariant="normal">l</mi><mo>.</mo></mrow></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="36pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="449154fd9f0f8226f703b21bfe939dc2"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tc-16-3775-2022-ie00001.svg" width="36pt" height="10pt" src="tc-16-3775-2022-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg> (above sea level) on a lateral moraine of the Chhota Shigri Glacier, western Himalaya. The study was carried out over the winter months (December to April) to understand SEB drivers and snow loses through sublimation. Furthermore, this study examines the role of cloud cover on SEB and turbulent heat fluxes. The turbulent heat fluxes were calculated using the bulk-aerodynamic method, including stability corrections. The net short-wave radiation was the primary energy source. However, the turbulent heat fluxes dissipated a significant amount of energy. The cloud cover plays an important role in limiting the incoming short-wave radiation by about 70 %. It also restricts the turbulent heat fluxes by more than 60 %, resulting in lower snow sublimation. During winter, turbulent latent heat flux contributed the largest proportion (64 %) in the total SEB, followed by net radiation (25 %) and sensible heat flux (11 ...