Evaporation over a glacial lake in Antarctica

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Shevnina, Elena, Potes, Miguel, Vihma, Timo, Naakka, Tuomas, Dhote, Pankaj Ramji, Thakur, Praveen Kumar
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica; Dronning Maud Land; East Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3101-2022

The study provides estimates of summertime evaporation over a glacial lake located in the Schirmacher oasis, Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. Lake Zub (alternately named Lake Priyadarshini and referred to throughout as Lake Zub/Priyadarshini) is the second-largest lake in the oasis, and its maximum depth is 6 m. The lake is also among the warmest glacial lakes in the oasis, and it is free of ice during almost 2 summer months. The summertime evaporation over the ice-free lake was measured using the eddy covariance method and estimated on the basis of five indirect methods (bulk-aerodynamic method and four combination equations). We used meteorological and hydrological measurements collected during a field experiment carried out in 2018. The eddy covariance method was considered the most accurate, and the evaporation was estimated to be 114mm for the period from 1 January to 7 February 2018 (38 d) on the basis of this method. The average daily evaporation was 3.0mmd