Modelling the development and decay of cryoconite holes in Northwest Greenland

• Main Authors: Onuma, Yukihiko, Fujita, Koji, Takeuchi, Nozomu, Niwano, Masashi, Aoki, Teruo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2023
• Subjects: article; Verlagsveröffentlichung; Greenland; Qaanaaq; glacier; Ice cap; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-54; https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00064730; https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/egusphere-2023-54/egusphere-2023-54.pdf

Cryoconite holes (CHs) are water-filled cylindrical holes with cryoconite (dark-coloured sediment) deposited at their bottoms, forming on ablating ice surfaces of glaciers and ice sheets worldwide. Because the collapse of CHs may disperse cryoconite on the ice surface, thereby decreasing the ice surface albedo, accurate simulation of the temporal changes in CH depth is essential for understanding ice surface melt. We established a novel model that simulates the temporal changes in CH depth using heat budgets calculated independently at the ice surface and CH bottom based on hole-shape geometry. We evaluated the model with in situ observations of the CH depths on the Qaanaaq ice cap in Northwest Greenland during the 2012, 2014, and 2017 melt seasons. The model reproduced well the observed depth changes and timing of CH collapse. Although earlier models have shown that CH depth tends to be deeper when downward shortwave radiation is intense, our sensitivity tests suggest that deeper CH tends to form when the diffuse component of downward shortwave radiation is dominant, whereas CHs tend to be shallower when the direct component is dominant. In addition, the total heat flux to the CH bottom is dominated by shortwave radiation transmitted through ice rather than that directly from the CH mouths when the CH is deeper than 10 cm. Furthermore, the tests highlight that the ice surface albedo is a key parameter for accurately reproducing the timing of CH collapse because 0.1 decrease in albedo induces the CH collapse one day earlier. Heat component analysis suggests that CH depth is governed by the balance between the intensity of the diffuse component of downward shortwave radiation and the wind speed. Therefore, these meteorological conditions may be important factors contributing to the recent surface darkening of the Greenland ice sheet and other glaciers via the redistribution of CHs. Coupling the CH model proposed in this study with a climate model should improve our understanding of glacier-surface darkening.