Impact of debris cover on glacier ablation and atmosphere - glacier feedbacks in the Karakoram

• Main Authors: Collier, E., Maussion, F., Nicholson, L.I., Mölg, T., Immerzeel, W.W., Bush, A.B.G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Cryosphere 2015
• Subjects: GLACIER; MODELLING; CLIMATE CHANGE; BASINS; HIMALAYA; MYANMAR; INDIA; NEPAL; PAKISTAN; BANGLADESH; AFGHANISTAN; BHUTAN; CHINA; Canada; glacier*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10625/57498

This work was partly carried out under the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) with financial support from the UK Government’s Department for International Development and the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. The Karakoram range of the Hindu-Kush Himalaya is characterized by both extensive glaciation and a widespread prevalence of surficial debris cover on the glaciers. Surface debris exerts a strong control on glacier surface-energy and mass fluxes and, by modifying surface boundary conditions, has the potential to alter atmosphere– glacier feedbacks. To date, the influence of debris on Karakoram glaciers has only been directly assessed by a small number of glaciological measurements over short periods. Here, we include supraglacial debris in a high-resolution, interactively coupled atmosphere–glacier modeling system. To investigate glaciological and meteorological changes that arise due to the presence of debris, we perform two simulations using the coupled model from 1 May to 1 October 2004: one that treats all glacier surfaces as debris-free and one that introduces a simplified specification for the debris thickness. The basin-averaged impact of debris is a reduction in ablation of 14 %, although the difference exceeds 5mw:e: on the lowest-altitude glacier tongues. The relatively modest reduction in basin-mean mass loss results in part from non-negligible sub-debris melt rates under thicker covers and from compensating increases in melt under thinner debris, and may help to explain the lack of distinct differences in recent elevation changes between clean and debriscovered ice. The presence of debris also strongly alters the surface boundary condition and thus heat exchanges with the atmosphere; near-surface meteorological fields at lower elevations and their vertical gradients; and the atmospheric boundary layer development. These findings are relevant for glacio-hydrological studies on debris-covered glaciers and contribute towards an ...