Refreezing on the Greenland ice sheet: a comparison of parameterizations
Retention and refreezing of meltwater are acknowledged to be important processes for the mass budget of polar glaciers and ice sheets. Several parameterizations of these processes exist for use in energy and mass balance models. Due to a lack of direct observations, validation of these parameterizat...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-743-2012 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/6/743/2012/tc-6-743-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/article/fab96140187d4d498992d4f00bc5d52d |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:fab96140187d4d498992d4f00bc5d52d 2023-05-15T16:28:16+02:00 Refreezing on the Greenland ice sheet: a comparison of parameterizations C. H. Reijmer M. R. van den Broeke X. Fettweis J. Ettema L. B. Stap 2012-07-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-743-2012 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/6/743/2012/tc-6-743-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/article/fab96140187d4d498992d4f00bc5d52d en eng Copernicus Publications doi:10.5194/tc-6-743-2012 1994-0416 1994-0424 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/6/743/2012/tc-6-743-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/article/fab96140187d4d498992d4f00bc5d52d undefined The Cryosphere, Vol 6, Iss 4, Pp 743-762 (2012) geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2012 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-743-2012 2023-01-22T18:11:27Z Retention and refreezing of meltwater are acknowledged to be important processes for the mass budget of polar glaciers and ice sheets. Several parameterizations of these processes exist for use in energy and mass balance models. Due to a lack of direct observations, validation of these parameterizations is difficult. In this study we compare a set of 6 refreezing parameterizations against output of two Regional Climate Models (RCMs) coupled to an energy balance snow model, the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO2) and the Modèle Atmosphérique Régional (MAR), applied to the Greenland ice sheet. In both RCMs, refreezing is explicitly calculated in a snow model that calculates vertical profiles of temperature, density and liquid water content. Between RACMO2 and MAR, the ice sheet-integrated amount of refreezing differs by only 4.9 mm w.e yr−1 (4.5 %), and the temporal and spatial variability are very similar. For consistency, the parameterizations are forced with output (surface temperature, precipitation and melt) of the RCMs. For the ice sheet-integrated amount of refreezing and its inter-annual variations, all parameterizations give similar results, especially after some tuning. However, the spatial distributions differ significantly and the spatial correspondence between the RCMs is better than with any of the parameterizations. Results are especially sensitive to the choice of the depth of the thermally active layer, which determines the cold content of the snow in most parameterizations. These results are independent of which RCM is used to force the parameterizations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet The Cryosphere Unknown Greenland The Cryosphere 6 4 743 762 |
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English |
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geo envir |
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geo envir C. H. Reijmer M. R. van den Broeke X. Fettweis J. Ettema L. B. Stap Refreezing on the Greenland ice sheet: a comparison of parameterizations |
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geo envir |
description |
Retention and refreezing of meltwater are acknowledged to be important processes for the mass budget of polar glaciers and ice sheets. Several parameterizations of these processes exist for use in energy and mass balance models. Due to a lack of direct observations, validation of these parameterizations is difficult. In this study we compare a set of 6 refreezing parameterizations against output of two Regional Climate Models (RCMs) coupled to an energy balance snow model, the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO2) and the Modèle Atmosphérique Régional (MAR), applied to the Greenland ice sheet. In both RCMs, refreezing is explicitly calculated in a snow model that calculates vertical profiles of temperature, density and liquid water content. Between RACMO2 and MAR, the ice sheet-integrated amount of refreezing differs by only 4.9 mm w.e yr−1 (4.5 %), and the temporal and spatial variability are very similar. For consistency, the parameterizations are forced with output (surface temperature, precipitation and melt) of the RCMs. For the ice sheet-integrated amount of refreezing and its inter-annual variations, all parameterizations give similar results, especially after some tuning. However, the spatial distributions differ significantly and the spatial correspondence between the RCMs is better than with any of the parameterizations. Results are especially sensitive to the choice of the depth of the thermally active layer, which determines the cold content of the snow in most parameterizations. These results are independent of which RCM is used to force the parameterizations. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
C. H. Reijmer M. R. van den Broeke X. Fettweis J. Ettema L. B. Stap |
author_facet |
C. H. Reijmer M. R. van den Broeke X. Fettweis J. Ettema L. B. Stap |
author_sort |
C. H. Reijmer |
title |
Refreezing on the Greenland ice sheet: a comparison of parameterizations |
title_short |
Refreezing on the Greenland ice sheet: a comparison of parameterizations |
title_full |
Refreezing on the Greenland ice sheet: a comparison of parameterizations |
title_fullStr |
Refreezing on the Greenland ice sheet: a comparison of parameterizations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Refreezing on the Greenland ice sheet: a comparison of parameterizations |
title_sort |
refreezing on the greenland ice sheet: a comparison of parameterizations |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-743-2012 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/6/743/2012/tc-6-743-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/article/fab96140187d4d498992d4f00bc5d52d |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 6, Iss 4, Pp 743-762 (2012) |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-6-743-2012 1994-0416 1994-0424 http://www.the-cryosphere.net/6/743/2012/tc-6-743-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/article/fab96140187d4d498992d4f00bc5d52d |
op_rights |
undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-743-2012 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
743 |
op_container_end_page |
762 |
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