Simulating melt, runoff and refreezing on Nordenskioldbreen, Svalbard, using a coupled snow and energy balance modelShow others and affiliations
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2012 (English)In: The Cryosphere, ISSN 1994-0416, E-ISSN 1994-0424, Vol. 6, no 3, p. 641-659
Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
A distributed energy balance model is coupled to a multi-layer snow model in order to study the mass balance evolution and the impact of refreezing on the mass budget of Nordenskioldbreen, Svalbard. The model is forced with output from the regional climate model RACMO and meteorological data from Svalbard Airport. Extensive calibration and initialisation are performed to increase the model accuracy. For the period 1989-2010, we find a mean net mass balance of -0.39 m w.e. a(-1). Refreezing contributes on average 0.27 m w.e. a(-1) to the mass budget and is most pronounced in the accumulation zone. The simulated mass balance, radiative fluxes and subsurface profiles are validated against observations and are generally in good agreement. Climate sensitivity experiments reveal a non-linear, seasonally dependent response of the mass balance, refreezing and runoff to changes in temperature and precipitation. It is shown that including seasonality in climate change, with less pronounced summer warming, reduces the sensitivity of the mass balance and equilibrium line altitude (ELA) estimates in a future climate. The amount of refreezing is shown to be rather insensitive to changes in climate.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2012. Vol. 6, no 3, p. 641-659
Research subject
SWEDARCTIC
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:polar:diva-2415DOI: 10.5194/tc-6-641-2012ISI: 000305831000003OAI: oai:DiVA.org:polar-2415DiVA, id: diva2:883986
2015-12-172015-10-072017-12-01