Challenges in modeling the energy balance and melt in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet.
Increased surface melt in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet causes significant changes in the firn structure, directly affecting the amount and timing of meltwater runoff. Here we force an energy-balance model with automatic weather stations data at two sites in the percolation zone of...
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ftunivutrecht:oai:dspace.library.uu.nl:1874/427255 2023-07-23T04:19:22+02:00 Challenges in modeling the energy balance and melt in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet. Covi, F. Hock, Regine Reijmer, Carleen Sub Dynamics Meteorology Marine and Atmospheric Research 2023-02-19 application/pdf https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/427255 en eng 0022-1430 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/427255 info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess Energy balance glacier modeling melt-surface polar firn Article 2023 ftunivutrecht 2023-07-02T03:54:19Z Increased surface melt in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet causes significant changes in the firn structure, directly affecting the amount and timing of meltwater runoff. Here we force an energy-balance model with automatic weather stations data at two sites in the percolation zone of southwest Greenland ( and 2360 m a.s.l.) between spring and fall . Extensive model validation and sensitivity analysis reveal that the skin layer formulation used to compute the surface temperature by closing the energy balance leads to a consistent overestimation of melt by more than a factor of two or three depending on the site. In contrast, model results match the observations well when the model is forced by observed surface temperatures; however, unexplained residuals in the energy balance occur. The sensible and ground heat flux differ markedly in the two simulations accounting largely for the difference in modeled melt amounts. This indicates that the energy available for melt is highly sensitive to small changes in surface temperature. Thus, regional climate models that also use the skin layer formulation may have a bias in surface temperature and melt energy in the percolation zone of the ice sheet. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Utrecht University Repository Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Utrecht University Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivutrecht |
language |
English |
topic |
Energy balance glacier modeling melt-surface polar firn |
spellingShingle |
Energy balance glacier modeling melt-surface polar firn Covi, F. Hock, Regine Reijmer, Carleen Challenges in modeling the energy balance and melt in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet. |
topic_facet |
Energy balance glacier modeling melt-surface polar firn |
description |
Increased surface melt in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet causes significant changes in the firn structure, directly affecting the amount and timing of meltwater runoff. Here we force an energy-balance model with automatic weather stations data at two sites in the percolation zone of southwest Greenland ( and 2360 m a.s.l.) between spring and fall . Extensive model validation and sensitivity analysis reveal that the skin layer formulation used to compute the surface temperature by closing the energy balance leads to a consistent overestimation of melt by more than a factor of two or three depending on the site. In contrast, model results match the observations well when the model is forced by observed surface temperatures; however, unexplained residuals in the energy balance occur. The sensible and ground heat flux differ markedly in the two simulations accounting largely for the difference in modeled melt amounts. This indicates that the energy available for melt is highly sensitive to small changes in surface temperature. Thus, regional climate models that also use the skin layer formulation may have a bias in surface temperature and melt energy in the percolation zone of the ice sheet. |
author2 |
Sub Dynamics Meteorology Marine and Atmospheric Research |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Covi, F. Hock, Regine Reijmer, Carleen |
author_facet |
Covi, F. Hock, Regine Reijmer, Carleen |
author_sort |
Covi, F. |
title |
Challenges in modeling the energy balance and melt in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet. |
title_short |
Challenges in modeling the energy balance and melt in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet. |
title_full |
Challenges in modeling the energy balance and melt in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet. |
title_fullStr |
Challenges in modeling the energy balance and melt in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Challenges in modeling the energy balance and melt in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet. |
title_sort |
challenges in modeling the energy balance and melt in the percolation zone of the greenland ice sheet. |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/427255 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
0022-1430 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/427255 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
_version_ |
1772182374299205632 |