Understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya
The Indian and East Asian summer monsoons shape the melt and accumulation patterns of glaciers in High Mountain Asia in complex ways due to the interaction of persistent cloud cover, large temperature ranges, high atmospheric water content and high precipitation rates. Glacier energy- and mass-balan...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532598/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532598/1/tc-16-1631-2022.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/1631/2022/ |
id |
ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:532598 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:532598 2023-05-15T18:32:35+02:00 Understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya Fugger, Stefan Fyffe, Catriona L. Fatichi, Simone Miles, Evan McCarthy, Michael Shaw, Thomas E. Ding, Baohong Yang, Wei Wagnon, Patrick Immerzeel, Walter Liu, Qiao Pellicciotti, Francesca 2022-05-05 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532598/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532598/1/tc-16-1631-2022.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/1631/2022/ en eng Copernicus Publications https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532598/1/tc-16-1631-2022.pdf Fugger, Stefan; Fyffe, Catriona L.; Fatichi, Simone; Miles, Evan; McCarthy, Michael orcid:0000-0001-8099-0531 Shaw, Thomas E.; Ding, Baohong; Yang, Wei; Wagnon, Patrick; Immerzeel, Walter; Liu, Qiao; Pellicciotti, Francesca. 2022 Understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya. The Cryosphere, 16 (5). 1631-1652. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1631-2022 <https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1631-2022> cc_by_4 CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2022 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1631-2022 2023-02-04T19:53:18Z The Indian and East Asian summer monsoons shape the melt and accumulation patterns of glaciers in High Mountain Asia in complex ways due to the interaction of persistent cloud cover, large temperature ranges, high atmospheric water content and high precipitation rates. Glacier energy- and mass-balance modelling using in situ measurements offers insights into the ways in which surface processes are shaped by climatic regimes. In this study, we use a full energy- and mass-balance model and seven on-glacier automatic weather station datasets from different parts of the Central and Eastern Himalaya to investigate how monsoon conditions influence the glacier surface energy and mass balance. In particular, we look at how debris-covered and debris-free glaciers respond differently to monsoonal conditions. The radiation budget primarily controls the melt of clean-ice glaciers, but turbulent fluxes play an important role in modulating the melt energy on debris-covered glaciers. The sensible heat flux decreases during core monsoon, but the latent heat flux cools the surface due to evaporation of liquid water. This interplay of radiative and turbulent fluxes causes debris-covered glacier melt rates to stay almost constant through the different phases of the monsoon. Ice melt under thin debris, on the other hand, is amplified by both the dark surface and the turbulent fluxes, which intensify melt during monsoon through surface heating and condensation. Pre-monsoon snow cover can considerably delay melt onset and have a strong impact on the seasonal mass balance. Intermittent monsoon snow cover lowers the melt rates at high elevation. This work is fundamental to the understanding of the present and future Himalayan cryosphere and water budget, while informing and motivating further glacier- and catchment-scale research using process-based models. Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Indian The Cryosphere 16 5 1631 1652 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
The Indian and East Asian summer monsoons shape the melt and accumulation patterns of glaciers in High Mountain Asia in complex ways due to the interaction of persistent cloud cover, large temperature ranges, high atmospheric water content and high precipitation rates. Glacier energy- and mass-balance modelling using in situ measurements offers insights into the ways in which surface processes are shaped by climatic regimes. In this study, we use a full energy- and mass-balance model and seven on-glacier automatic weather station datasets from different parts of the Central and Eastern Himalaya to investigate how monsoon conditions influence the glacier surface energy and mass balance. In particular, we look at how debris-covered and debris-free glaciers respond differently to monsoonal conditions. The radiation budget primarily controls the melt of clean-ice glaciers, but turbulent fluxes play an important role in modulating the melt energy on debris-covered glaciers. The sensible heat flux decreases during core monsoon, but the latent heat flux cools the surface due to evaporation of liquid water. This interplay of radiative and turbulent fluxes causes debris-covered glacier melt rates to stay almost constant through the different phases of the monsoon. Ice melt under thin debris, on the other hand, is amplified by both the dark surface and the turbulent fluxes, which intensify melt during monsoon through surface heating and condensation. Pre-monsoon snow cover can considerably delay melt onset and have a strong impact on the seasonal mass balance. Intermittent monsoon snow cover lowers the melt rates at high elevation. This work is fundamental to the understanding of the present and future Himalayan cryosphere and water budget, while informing and motivating further glacier- and catchment-scale research using process-based models. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fugger, Stefan Fyffe, Catriona L. Fatichi, Simone Miles, Evan McCarthy, Michael Shaw, Thomas E. Ding, Baohong Yang, Wei Wagnon, Patrick Immerzeel, Walter Liu, Qiao Pellicciotti, Francesca |
spellingShingle |
Fugger, Stefan Fyffe, Catriona L. Fatichi, Simone Miles, Evan McCarthy, Michael Shaw, Thomas E. Ding, Baohong Yang, Wei Wagnon, Patrick Immerzeel, Walter Liu, Qiao Pellicciotti, Francesca Understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya |
author_facet |
Fugger, Stefan Fyffe, Catriona L. Fatichi, Simone Miles, Evan McCarthy, Michael Shaw, Thomas E. Ding, Baohong Yang, Wei Wagnon, Patrick Immerzeel, Walter Liu, Qiao Pellicciotti, Francesca |
author_sort |
Fugger, Stefan |
title |
Understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya |
title_short |
Understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya |
title_full |
Understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya |
title_fullStr |
Understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya |
title_full_unstemmed |
Understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya |
title_sort |
understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the central and eastern himalaya |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532598/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532598/1/tc-16-1631-2022.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/1631/2022/ |
geographic |
Indian |
geographic_facet |
Indian |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532598/1/tc-16-1631-2022.pdf Fugger, Stefan; Fyffe, Catriona L.; Fatichi, Simone; Miles, Evan; McCarthy, Michael orcid:0000-0001-8099-0531 Shaw, Thomas E.; Ding, Baohong; Yang, Wei; Wagnon, Patrick; Immerzeel, Walter; Liu, Qiao; Pellicciotti, Francesca. 2022 Understanding monsoon controls on the energy and mass balance of glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya. The Cryosphere, 16 (5). 1631-1652. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1631-2022 <https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1631-2022> |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1631-2022 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1631 |
op_container_end_page |
1652 |
_version_ |
1766216796246900736 |