Brief communication: Growth and decay of an ice stupa in alpine conditions – a simple model driven by energy-flux observations over a glacier surface

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Oerlemans, Johannes, Balasubramanian, Suryanarayanan, Clavuot, Conradin, Keller, Felix
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2021
• Subjects: article; Verlagsveröffentlichung; Stupa; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3007-2021; https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00057193; https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00056843/tc-15-3007-2021.pdf; https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/3007/2021/tc-15-3007-2021.pdf

We present a simple model to calculate the evolution of an ice stupa (artificial ice reservoir). The model is formulated for a cone geometry and driven by energy balance measurements over a glacier surface for a 5-year period. An “exposure factor” is introduced to deal with the fact that an ice stup...