The impact of Saharan dust and black carbon on albedo and long-term mass balance of an Alpine glacier
Light-absorbing impurities in snow and ice control glacier melt as shortwave radiation represents the main component of the surface energy balance. Here, we investigate the long-term effect of snow impurities, i.e., mineral dust and black carbon (BC), on albedo and glacier mass balance. The analysis...
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2015
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ftnonlinearchiv:oai:noa.gwlb.de:cop_mods_00015843 2023-05-15T18:32:33+02:00 The impact of Saharan dust and black carbon on albedo and long-term mass balance of an Alpine glacier Gabbi, J. Huss, M. Bauder, A. Cao, F. Schwikowski, M. 2015-07 electronic https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1385-2015 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00015843 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00015798/tc-9-1385-2015.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/9/1385/2015/tc-9-1385-2015.pdf eng eng Copernicus Publications The Cryosphere -- ˜Theœ Cryosphere -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2393169 -- http://www.the-cryosphere.net/ -- 1994-0424 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1385-2015 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00015843 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00015798/tc-9-1385-2015.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/9/1385/2015/tc-9-1385-2015.pdf uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article Verlagsveröffentlichung article Text doc-type:article 2015 ftnonlinearchiv https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1385-2015 2022-02-08T22:54:26Z Light-absorbing impurities in snow and ice control glacier melt as shortwave radiation represents the main component of the surface energy balance. Here, we investigate the long-term effect of snow impurities, i.e., mineral dust and black carbon (BC), on albedo and glacier mass balance. The analysis was performed over the period 1914–2014 for two sites on Claridenfirn, Swiss Alps, where an outstanding 100-year record of seasonal mass balance measurements is available. Information on atmospheric deposition of mineral dust and BC over the last century was retrieved from two firn/ice cores of high-alpine sites. A combined mass balance and snow/firn layer model was employed to assess the effects of melt and accumulation processes on the impurity concentration at the surface and thus on albedo and glacier mass balance. Compared to pure snow conditions, the presence of Saharan dust and BC lowered the mean annual albedo by 0.04–0.06 depending on the location on the glacier. Consequently, annual melt was increased by 15–19 %, and the mean annual mass balance was reduced by about 280–490 mm w.e. BC clearly dominated absorption which is about 3 times higher than that of mineral dust. The upper site has experienced mainly positive mass balances and impurity layers were continuously buried whereas at the lower site, surface albedo was more strongly influenced by re-exposure of dust and BC-enriched layers due to frequent years with negative mass balances. Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA The Cryosphere 9 4 1385 1400 |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung Gabbi, J. Huss, M. Bauder, A. Cao, F. Schwikowski, M. The impact of Saharan dust and black carbon on albedo and long-term mass balance of an Alpine glacier |
topic_facet |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
description |
Light-absorbing impurities in snow and ice control glacier melt as shortwave radiation represents the main component of the surface energy balance. Here, we investigate the long-term effect of snow impurities, i.e., mineral dust and black carbon (BC), on albedo and glacier mass balance. The analysis was performed over the period 1914–2014 for two sites on Claridenfirn, Swiss Alps, where an outstanding 100-year record of seasonal mass balance measurements is available. Information on atmospheric deposition of mineral dust and BC over the last century was retrieved from two firn/ice cores of high-alpine sites. A combined mass balance and snow/firn layer model was employed to assess the effects of melt and accumulation processes on the impurity concentration at the surface and thus on albedo and glacier mass balance. Compared to pure snow conditions, the presence of Saharan dust and BC lowered the mean annual albedo by 0.04–0.06 depending on the location on the glacier. Consequently, annual melt was increased by 15–19 %, and the mean annual mass balance was reduced by about 280–490 mm w.e. BC clearly dominated absorption which is about 3 times higher than that of mineral dust. The upper site has experienced mainly positive mass balances and impurity layers were continuously buried whereas at the lower site, surface albedo was more strongly influenced by re-exposure of dust and BC-enriched layers due to frequent years with negative mass balances. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gabbi, J. Huss, M. Bauder, A. Cao, F. Schwikowski, M. |
author_facet |
Gabbi, J. Huss, M. Bauder, A. Cao, F. Schwikowski, M. |
author_sort |
Gabbi, J. |
title |
The impact of Saharan dust and black carbon on albedo and long-term mass balance of an Alpine glacier |
title_short |
The impact of Saharan dust and black carbon on albedo and long-term mass balance of an Alpine glacier |
title_full |
The impact of Saharan dust and black carbon on albedo and long-term mass balance of an Alpine glacier |
title_fullStr |
The impact of Saharan dust and black carbon on albedo and long-term mass balance of an Alpine glacier |
title_full_unstemmed |
The impact of Saharan dust and black carbon on albedo and long-term mass balance of an Alpine glacier |
title_sort |
impact of saharan dust and black carbon on albedo and long-term mass balance of an alpine glacier |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1385-2015 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00015843 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00015798/tc-9-1385-2015.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/9/1385/2015/tc-9-1385-2015.pdf |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_relation |
The Cryosphere -- ˜Theœ Cryosphere -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2393169 -- http://www.the-cryosphere.net/ -- 1994-0424 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1385-2015 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00015843 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00015798/tc-9-1385-2015.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/9/1385/2015/tc-9-1385-2015.pdf |
op_rights |
uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1385-2015 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1385 |
op_container_end_page |
1400 |
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1766216714013376512 |