scholarly journals Comparison of Modeled Water Input and Measured Discharge Prior to a Release Event: Unteraargletscher, Bernese Alps, Switzerland

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Schuler ◽  
Urs H. Fischer ◽  
Regina Sterr ◽  
Regine Hock ◽  
G. Hilmar Gudmundsson
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Water Pressure ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Outburst Flood ◽  
Temperature Index ◽  
Clear Sky ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Hydrological System

A distributed temperature index melt model including potential clear-sky solar radiation was applied to Unteraargletscher, Bernese Alps, Switzerland, to quantify water input to the glacial hydrological system during the ablation season 1999. Model parameters were determined by calibrating calculated melt with ablation measurements. Discharge was measured in the proglacial stream for 18 days until the station was destroyed by an outburst flood. Comparison of modeled melt and measured discharge reveals that routing processes of water through the glacier vary with time as the water is transferred through a dynamic drainage system. Furthermore, an imbalance of water input and output suggests that water was stored in or beneath the glacier during this period. The culminating outburst flood presumably released this en– or subglacially stored water and may be related to a change in the configuration of the glacial drainage system as inferred from measurements of subglacial water pressure.

Subglacial water pressure records from a fast-flowing outlet glacier in Greenland

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Doyle ◽  
Bryn Hubbard ◽  
Poul Christoffersen ◽  
Marion Bougamont ◽  
Robert Law ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Pressure ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Distinct Component ◽  
Outlet Glacier ◽  
Diurnal Cycles ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Hydrological System ◽  
Discharge Pressure ◽  
Glacier Motion

<p>Glacier motion is resisted by basal traction that can be reduced significantly by pressurised water at the ice-bed interface. Few records of subglacial water pressure have been collected from fast-flowing, marine-terminating glaciers despite such glaciers accounting for approximately half of total ice discharge from the Greenland Ice Sheet.  The paucity of such measurements is due to the practical challenges in drilling and instrumenting boreholes to the bed, in areas that are often heavily-crevassed, through rapidly-deforming ice that ruptures sensor cables within weeks. Here, we present pressure records and drilling observations from two sites located 30 km from the calving front of Store Glacier in West Greenland, where ice flow averages ~600 m yr<sup>-1</sup>.  In 2018, boreholes were drilled 950 m to the bed near the margin of a large, rapidly-draining supraglacial lake. In 2019, multiple boreholes were drilled ~1030 m to the bed in the centre of the drained supraglacial lake, and in close proximity to a large, active moulin. All boreholes drained rapidly when they intersected or approached the ice-bed interface, which is commonly interpreted as indicating connection to an active subglacial drainage system. Neighbouring boreholes responded to the breakthrough of subsequent boreholes demonstrating hydrological or mechanical inter-connection over a distance of ~70 m. Differences in the time series of water pressure indicate that each borehole intersected a distinct component of the subglacial hydrological system. Boreholes located within 250 m of the moulin reveal clear diurnal cycles either in phase or anti-phase with moulin discharge. Pressure records from boreholes located on the lake margin, however, show smaller amplitude, and less distinct, diurnal cycles superimposed on longer-period (e.g. multiday) variability. We compare these datasets to those in the literature and investigate consistencies and inconsistencies with glacio-hydrological theory.</p>

scholarly journals Borehole water-level variations and the structure of the subglacial hydrological system of Haut Glacier d’Arolla, Valais, Switzerland

1995 ◽  
Vol 41 (139) ◽  
pp. 572-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. P. Hubbard ◽  
M. J. Sharp ◽  
I. C. Willis ◽  
M. K. Nielsen ◽  
C. C. Smart
Keyword(s):  
Distributed System ◽  
Water Pressure ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Variable Pressure ◽  
Sediment Layer ◽  
Drainage Channels ◽  
Hydrological System ◽  
Borehole Water ◽  
Water Level Variations

AbstractLate-summer subglacial water pressures have been measured in a dense array of boreholes in the ablation area of Haut Glacier d’Arolla, Switzerland. Interpolated surfaces of minimum diurnal water pressure and diurnal water-pressure variation suggest the presence of a subglacial channel within a more widespread, distributed drainage system. The channel flows along the centre of a variable pressure axis (VPA), some tens of metres wide, that is characterized by low minimum diurnal water pressures (frequently atmospheric) and high diurnal water-pressure variations. These characteristics are transitional over a lateral distance of c. 70 m to higher and more stable subglacial water pressures in the adjacent distributed system. Water-pressure variations recorded in boreholes located close to the centre of the VPA reflect the delivery of surface-derived meltwater to the glacier bed and result in a diurnally reversing, transverse hydraulic gradient that drives water out from the channel into the distributed system during the afternoon and back to the channel overnight. Subglacial observations suggest that such flow occurs through a vertically confined sediment layer. Borehole turbidity records indicate that the resulting diurnal water flows are responsible for the mobilization and transport of fine debris in suspension. Analysis of the propagation velocity and amplitude attenuation cf the diurnal pressure waves suggests that the hydraulic conductivity of the sediment layer decreases exponentially with distance from the channel, falling from c. 10−4 m s−1 at the channel boundary to c. 10−7 m s−1 70 m away. These apparent hydraulic conductivities are consistent with Darcian flow through clean sand and typical glacial till, respectively.We suggest that fine material is systematically flushed from basal sediments located adjacent to large, melt-season drainage channels beneath warm-based glaciers. This process may have important implications for patterns of glacier erosion, hydro-chemistry and dynamics.

scholarly journals MODIS Does Not Capture the Spatial Heterogeneity of Snow Cover Induced by Solar Radiation

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hafsa Bouamri ◽  
Christophe Kinnard ◽  
Abdelghani Boudhar ◽  
Simon Gascoin ◽  
Lahoucine Hanich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Snow Cover Area ◽  
Temperature Index ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Clear Sky ◽  
Spatially Distributed

Estimating snowmelt in semi-arid mountain ranges is an important but challenging task, due to the large spatial variability of the snow cover and scarcity of field observations. Adding solar radiation as snowmelt predictor within empirical snow models is often done to account for topographically induced variations in melt rates. This study examines the added value of including different treatments of solar radiation within empirical snowmelt models and benchmarks their performance against MODIS snow cover area (SCA) maps over the 2003-2016 period. Three spatially distributed, enhanced temperature index models that, respectively, include the potential clear-sky direct radiation, the incoming solar radiation and net solar radiation were compared with a classical temperature-index (TI) model to simulate snowmelt, SWE and SCA within the Rheraya basin in the Moroccan High Atlas Range. Enhanced models, particularly that which includes net solar radiation, were found to better explain the observed SCA variability compared to the TI model. However, differences in model performance in simulating basin wide SWE and SCA were small. This occurs because topographically induced variations in melt rates simulated by the enhanced models tend to average out, a situation favored by the rather uniform distribution of slope aspects in the basin. While the enhanced models simulated more heterogeneous snow cover conditions, aggregating the simulated SCA from the 100 m model resolution towards the MODIS resolution (500 m) suppresses key spatial variability related to solar radiation, which attenuates the differences between the TI and the radiative models. Our findings call for caution when using MODIS for calibration and validation of spatially distributed snow models.

scholarly journals Assessing the transferability and robustness of an enhanced temperature-index glacier-melt model

2009 ◽  
Vol 55 (190) ◽  
pp. 258-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Carenzo ◽  
Francesca Pellicciotti ◽  
Stefan Rimkus ◽  
Paolo Burlando
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
Shortwave Radiation ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Radiation Factor ◽  
Temperature Index ◽  
Clear Sky ◽  
Few Data ◽  
Parameter Values

AbstractWe investigate the transferability of an enhanced temperature-index melt model that was developed and tested on Haut Glacier d’Arolla, Switzerland, in the 2001 season. The model’s empirical parameters (temperature factor, TF, and shortwave radiation factor, SRF) are recalibrated for: (1) other locations on Haut Glacier d’Arolla; (2) subperiods of distinct meteorological conditions; (3) different years on Haut Glacier d’Arolla; and (4) other glaciers in different years. The model parameters are optimized against simulations of an energy-balance model validated against ablation observations. Results are compared with those obtained with the original parameters. The model works very well when applied to other sites, seasons and glaciers, with the exception of overcast conditions. Differences are due to underestimation of high melt rates. The parameter values are associated with the prevailing energy-balance conditions, showing that high SRF are obtained on clear-sky days, whereas higher TF are typical of locations where glacier winds prevail and turbulent fluxes are high. We also provide a range of parameters clearly associated with the site’s location and its meteorological characteristics that could help to assign parameter values to sites where few data are available.

scholarly journals A distributed temperature-index ice- and snowmelt model including potential direct solar radiation

1999 ◽  
Vol 45 (149) ◽  
pp. 101-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regine Hock
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Global Radiation ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Direct Solar Radiation ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Temperature Index ◽  
Index Model ◽  
Clear Sky ◽  
Degree Day ◽  
Daily Discharge

AbstractHourly melt and discharge of Storglaciären, a small glacier in Sweden, were computed for two melt seasons, applying temperature-index methods to a 30 m resolution grid for the melt component. The classical degree-day method yielded a good simulation of the seasonal patient of discharge, but the pronounced melt-induced daily discharge cycles were not captured. Modelled degree-day factors calculated for every hour and each gridcell from melt obtained from a distributed energy-balance model varied substantially, both diurnally and spatially. A new distributed temperature-index model is suggested, attempting to capture both the pronounced diurnal melt cycles and the spatial variations in melt due to the effects of surrounding topography. This is accomplished by including a radiation index in terms of potential clear-sky direct solar radiation, and thus, without the need for other data besides air temperature. This approach improved considerably the simulation of diurnal discharge fluctuations and yielded a more realistic spatial distribution of melt rates. The incorporation of measured global radiation to account for the reduction in direct solar radiation due to cloudiness did not lead to additional improvement in model performance.

scholarly journals TOPMELT 1.0: a topography-based distribution function approach to snowmelt simulation for hydrological modelling at basin scale

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 5251-5265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Zaramella ◽  
Marco Borga ◽  
Davide Zoccatelli ◽  
Luca Carturan
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Distributed Model ◽  
Temporal Aggregation ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Temperature Index ◽  
Index Model ◽  
Clear Sky ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Snow Water

Abstract. Enhanced temperature-index distributed models for snowpack simulation, incorporating air temperature and a term for clear sky potential solar radiation, are increasingly used to simulate the spatial variability of the snow water equivalent. This paper presents a new snowpack model (termed TOPMELT) which integrates an enhanced temperature-index model into the ICHYMOD semi-distributed basin-scale hydrological model by exploiting a statistical representation of the distribution of clear sky potential solar radiation. This is obtained by discretizing the full spatial distribution of clear sky potential solar radiation into a number of radiation classes. The computation required to generate a spatially distributed water equivalent reduces to a single calculation for each radiation class. This turns into a potentially significant advantage when parameter sensitivity and uncertainty estimation procedures are carried out. The radiation index may be also averaged in time over given time periods. Thus, the model resembles a classical temperature-index model when only one radiation class for each elevation band and a temporal aggregation of 1 year is used, whereas it approximates a fully distributed model by increasing the number of the radiation classes and decreasing the temporal aggregation. TOPMELT is integrated within the semi-distributed ICHYMOD model and is applied at an hourly time step over the Aurino Basin (also known as the Ahr River) at San Giorgio (San Giorgio Aurino), a 614 km2 catchment in the Upper Adige River basin (eastern Alps, Italy) to examine the sensitivity of the snowpack and runoff model results to the spatial and temporal aggregation of the radiation fluxes. It is shown that the spatial simulation of the snow water equivalent is strongly affected by the aggregation scales. However, limited degradation of the snow simulations is achieved when using 10 radiation classes and 4 weeks as spatial and temporal aggregation scales respectively. Results highlight that the effects of space–time aggregation of the solar radiation patterns on the runoff response are scale dependent. They are minimal at the scale of the whole Aurino Basin, while considerable impact is seen at a basin scale of 5 km2.

scholarly journals TOPMELT 1.0: A topography-based distribution function approach to snowmelt simulation for hydrological modelling at basin scale

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Zaramella ◽  
Marco Borga ◽  
Davide Zoccatelli ◽  
Luca Carturan
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Eastern Alps ◽  
Distributed Model ◽  
Temperature Index ◽  
Distributed Models ◽  
Index Model ◽  
Clear Sky ◽  
Radiation Fluxes ◽  
Basin Scale

Abstract. Enhanced temperature-index distributed models for snowpack simulation, incorporating air temperature and a term for clear sky potential solar radiation, are increasingly used to simulate the spatial variability of the snow water equivalent. This paper presents a new snowpack model (termed TOPMELT) which integrates an enhanced temperature index model into a lumped basin scale hydrological model by exploiting a statistical representation of the distribution of clear sky potential solar radiation. This is obtained by discretising the full spatial distribution of clear sky potential solar radiation into a number of radiation classes. The computation required to generate a spatially distributed water equivalent reduces to a single calculation for each radiation class. This turn into a potentially significant advantage when parameter sensitivity and uncertainty estimation procedures are carried out. The model includes a routine, which accounts for the variability of clear sky radiation distributions with time, ensuring a consistent temporal simulation of the snow mass balance. Thus, the model resembles a classical temperature-index model when only one radiation class for each elevation band is used, whereas it approximates a fully distributed model with increasing the number of the radiation classes (and correspondingly decreasing the area corresponding to each class). TOPMELT is applied over the Aurino basin at S. Giorgio, a 614 km\\textsuperscript{2} catchment in the Upper Adige river basin (Eastern Alps, Italy) to examine the sensitivity of the snowpack model results to the temporal and spatial aggregation of the radiation fluxes.

scholarly journals Borehole water-level variations and the structure of the subglacial hydrological system of Haut Glacier d’Arolla, Valais, Switzerland

1995 ◽  
Vol 41 (139) ◽  
pp. 572-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. P. Hubbard ◽  
M. J. Sharp ◽  
I. C. Willis ◽  
M. K. Nielsen ◽  
C. C. Smart
Keyword(s):  
Distributed System ◽  
Water Pressure ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Variable Pressure ◽  
Sediment Layer ◽  
Drainage Channels ◽  
Hydrological System ◽  
Borehole Water ◽  
Water Level Variations

AbstractLate-summer subglacial water pressures have been measured in a dense array of boreholes in the ablation area of Haut Glacier d’Arolla, Switzerland. Interpolated surfaces of minimum diurnal water pressure and diurnal water-pressure variation suggest the presence of a subglacial channel within a more widespread, distributed drainage system. The channel flows along the centre of avariable pressure axis(VPA), some tens of metres wide, that is characterized by low minimum diurnal water pressures (frequently atmospheric) and high diurnal water-pressure variations. These characteristics are transitional over a lateral distance of c. 70 m to higher and more stable subglacial water pressures in the adjacent distributed system. Water-pressure variations recorded in boreholes located close to the centre of the VPA reflect the delivery of surface-derived meltwater to the glacier bed and result in a diurnally reversing, transverse hydraulic gradient that drives water out from the channel into the distributed system during the afternoon and back to the channel overnight. Subglacial observations suggest that such flow occurs through a vertically confined sediment layer. Borehole turbidity records indicate that the resulting diurnal water flows are responsible for the mobilization and transport of fine debris in suspension. Analysis of the propagation velocity and amplitude attenuation cf the diurnal pressure waves suggests that the hydraulic conductivity of the sediment layer decreases exponentially with distance from the channel, falling from c. 10−4m s−1at the channel boundary to c. 10−7m s−170 m away. These apparent hydraulic conductivities are consistent with Darcian flow through clean sand and typical glacial till, respectively.We suggest that fine material is systematically flushed from basal sediments located adjacent to large, melt-season drainage channels beneath warm-based glaciers. This process may have important implications for patterns of glacier erosion, hydro-chemistry and dynamics.

scholarly journals Sensitivity of subglacial drainage to water supply distribution at the Kongsfjord basin, Svalbard

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloé Scholzen ◽  
Thomas V. Schuler ◽  
Adrien Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Models ◽  
Water Pressure ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Early Summer ◽  
Small Surface ◽  
Svalbard Archipelago ◽  
Tidewater Glaciers ◽  
Hydrological System ◽  
Subglacial Topography ◽  
Subglacial Drainage

Abstract. By regulating the amount, the timing and the location of meltwater supply to the glacier bed, supraglacial hydrology potentially exerts a major control on the evolution of the subglacial drainage system, which in turn modulates sliding. Yet the configuration of the supraglacial hydrological system has received only little attention in numerical models of subglacial hydrology so far. Here we apply the two dimensional subglacial hydrology model GlaDS to a Svalbard glacier basin with the aim of investigating how the spatial distribution of meltwater recharge affects the characteristics of the basal drainage system. We design four experiments with various degrees of complexity in the way that meltwater is delivered to the subglacial drainage model. Our results show significant differences between experiments in the early-summer transition from distributed to channelized drainage, with discrete recharge at moulins favouring channelization and driving earlier rise in basal water pressure. Otherwise, we find that water input configuration only poorly influences subglacial hydrology, which is controlled primarily by subglacial topography. All experiments fail to develop channels of sufficient efficiency to substantially reduce summertime water pressures, which we impute to small surface gradients and short melt seasons. The findings of our study may be extended to most Svalbard tidewater glaciers with similar topography and low meltwater recharge. The absence of efficient channelization implies that the dynamics of tidewater glaciers in the Svalbard archipelago may be sensitive to future long-term trends in meltwater supply.

scholarly journals A test of common assumptions used to infer subglacial water flow through overdeepenings

2014 ◽  
Vol 60 (222) ◽  
pp. 725-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine F. Dow ◽  
Jeffrey L. Kavanaugh ◽  
Johnny W. Sanders ◽  
Kurt M. Cuffey
Keyword(s):  
Melting Point ◽  
Water Pressure ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Variable Pressure ◽  
Local Pressure ◽  
Overburden Pressure ◽  
Temperature Regimes ◽  
Hydrological System ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
Pressure Melting

AbstractBorehole instrument records from a cirque glacier with an overdeepened bed are examined to assess the validity of widely held glacial hydrological assumptions. At this glacier, hydraulic-potential calculations suggest water below overburden pressure will flow into the overdeepening, where the steepness of the riegel causes water to pool in the basin and increase in pressure. Our subglacial water pressure data also show high consistent pressures in the overdeepening and the presence of an active, variable-pressure drainage system towards the margin of the cirque. Therefore, we find that although uniform hydraulic-potential calculations are not directly applicable, they can still be useful for interpretation of the subglacial hydrological system. We also examine supercooling assumptions under different pressure and temperature regimes for water flowing over a riegel, driven using our borehole records of subglacial water temperatures that are consistently above the pressure-melting point during the late melt season. Our results show that even a slight increase in basal temperatures relative to the local pressure-melting point is sufficient to prevent a reduction in basal hydraulic conductivity as a result of supercooling freeze-on.

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