Methodological approaches to infer end-of-winter snow distribution on alpine glaciers
| Autor: | Michael Zemp, Martin Hoelzle, Leo Sold, Philip C. Joerg, Matthias Huss, Hubert Andereggen |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | University of Zurich |
| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: |
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Firn 1904 Earth-Surface Processes 0207 environmental engineering Elevation Glacier 02 engineering and technology Snow field 15. Life on land Snow Atmospheric sciences 01 natural sciences 10122 Institute of Geography Lidar Spatial variability 910 Geography & travel 020701 environmental engineering Digital elevation model Geomorphology Geology 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Earth-Surface Processes |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Glaciology |
| ISSN: | 1727-5652 0022-1430 |
| DOI: | 10.3189/2013jog13j015 |
| Popis: | Snow accumulation is an important component of the mass balance of alpine glaciers. To improve our understanding of the processes related to accumulation and their representation in state-of-the-art mass-balance models, extensive field measurements are required. We present measurements of snow accumulation distribution on Findelengletscher, Switzerland, for April 2010 using (1) in situ snow probings, (2) airborne ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and (3) differencing of two airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) digital elevation models (DEMs). Calculating high-resolution snow depth from DEM-differencing requires careful correction for vertical ice-flow velocity and densification in the accumulation area. All three methods reveal a general increase in snow depth with elevation, but also a significant small-scale spatial variability. Lidar-differencing and in situ snow probings show good agreement for the mean specific winter balance (0.72 and 0.78 m w.e., respectively). The lidar-derived distributed snow depth reveals significant zonal correlations with elevation, slope and curvature in a multiple linear regression model. Unlike lidar-differencing, GPR-derived snow depth is not affected by glacier dynamics or firn compaction, but to a smaller degree by snow density and liquid water content. It is thus a valuable independent data source for validation. The simultaneous availability of the three datasets facilitates the comparison of the methods and contributes to a better understanding of processes that govern winter accumulation distribution on alpine glaciers. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|