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Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: Results and insights from a new model

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Change log

Authors

Benedek, C 
Tedesco, M 

Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pWe present a newly developed 1-D numerical energy-balance and phase transition supraglacial lake model: GlacierLake. GlacierLake incorporates snowfall, in situ snow and ice melt, incoming water from the surrounding catchment, ice lid formation, basal freeze-up and thermal stratification. Snow cover and temperature are varied to test lake development through winter and the maximum lid thickness is recorded. Average wintertime temperatures of −2 tojats:inline-formulajats:alternativesjats:tex-math−30C</jats:tex-math><jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mime-subtype="png" mimetype="image" xlink:href="S0022143020000076_inline2.png" /></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula>and total snowfall of 0 to 3.45 m lead to a range of the maximum lid thickness from 1.2 to 2.8 m afterjats:inline-formulajats:alternativesjats:tex-math250</jats:tex-math><jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mime-subtype="png" mimetype="image" xlink:href="S0022143020000076_inline3.png" /></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula>days, with snow cover exerting the dominant control. An initial ice temperature ofjats:inline-formulajats:alternativesjats:tex-math−15C</jats:tex-math><jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mime-subtype="png" mimetype="image" xlink:href="S0022143020000076_inline4.png" /></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula>with simulated advection of cold ice from upstream results in 0.6 m of basal freeze-up. This suggests that lakes with water depths above 1.3 to 3.4 m (dependent on winter snowfall and temperature) upon lid formation will persist through winter. These buried lakes can provide a sizeable water store at the start of the melt season, expedite future lake formation and warm underlying ice even in winter.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

glacier hydrology, melt-surface, glacier modelling

Journal Title

Journal of Glaciology

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0022-1430
1727-5652

Volume Title

66

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Sponsorship
NERC (NE/L002507/1)
NERC