scholarly journals The use of bulk and profile methods for determining surface heat fluxes in the presence of glacier winds

2000 ◽  
Vol 46 (154) ◽  
pp. 445-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Denby ◽  
W. Greuell
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Turbulent Fluxes ◽  
Turbulent Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Katabatic Wind ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
Wind Speed Maximum

AbstractA one-dimensional second-order closure model and in situ observations on a melting glacier surface are used to investigate the suitability of bulk and profile methods for determining turbulent fluxes in the presence of the katabatic wind-speed maximum associated with glacier winds. The results show that profile methods severely underestimate turbulent fluxes when a wind-speed maximum is present. The bulk method, on the other hand, only slightly overestimates the turbulent heat flux in the entire region below the wind-speed maximum and is thus much more appropriate for use on sloping glacier surfaces where katabatic winds dominate and wind-speed maxima are just a few meters above the surface.

scholarly journals Evaluation of different methods to model near-surface turbulent fluxes for a mountain glacier in the Cariboo Mountains, BC, Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2897-2918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Radić ◽  
Brian Menounos ◽  
Joseph Shea ◽  
Noel Fitzpatrick ◽  
Mekdes A. Tessema ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Friction Velocity ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Katabatic Flow ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Mountain Glacier ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Wind Speed Maximum ◽  
Turbulent Heat Fluxes

Abstract. As part of surface energy balance models used to simulate glacier melting, choosing parameterizations to adequately estimate turbulent heat fluxes is extremely challenging. This study aims to evaluate a set of four aerodynamic bulk methods (labeled as C methods), commonly used to estimate turbulent heat fluxes for a sloped glacier surface, and two less commonly used bulk methods developed from katabatic flow models. The C methods differ in their parameterizations of the bulk exchange coefficient that relates the fluxes to the near-surface measurements of mean wind speed, air temperature, and humidity. The methods' performance in simulating 30 min sensible- and latent-heat fluxes is evaluated against the measured fluxes from an open-path eddy-covariance (OPEC) method. The evaluation is performed at a point scale of a mountain glacier, using one-level meteorological and OPEC observations from multi-day periods in the 2010 and 2012 summer seasons. The analysis of the two independent seasons yielded the same key findings, which include the following: first, the bulk method, with or without the commonly used Monin–Obukhov (M–O) stability functions, overestimates the turbulent heat fluxes over the observational period, mainly due to a substantial overestimation of the friction velocity. This overestimation is most pronounced during the katabatic flow conditions, corroborating the previous findings that the M–O theory works poorly in the presence of a low wind speed maximum. Second, the method based on a katabatic flow model (labeled as the KInt method) outperforms any C method in simulating the friction velocity; however, the C methods outperform the KInt method in simulating the sensible-heat fluxes. Third, the best overall performance is given by a hybrid method, which combines the KInt approach with the C method; i.e., it parameterizes eddy viscosity differently than eddy diffusivity. An error analysis reveals that the uncertainties in the measured meteorological variables and the roughness lengths produce errors in the modeled fluxes that are smaller than the differences between the modeled and observed fluxes. This implies that further advances will require improvement to model theory rather than better measurements of input variables. Further data from different glaciers are needed to investigate any universality of these findings.

scholarly journals A multi-season investigation of glacier surface roughness lengths through in situ and remote observation

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1051-1071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noel Fitzpatrick ◽  
Valentina Radić ◽  
Brian Menounos
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Eddy Covariance ◽  
Wind Direction ◽  
Roughness Length ◽  
Turbulent Heat Flux ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Roughness Lengths ◽  
Order Of Magnitude

Abstract. The roughness length values for momentum, temperature, and water vapour are key inputs to the bulk aerodynamic method for estimating turbulent heat flux. Measurements of site-specific roughness length are rare for glacier surfaces, and substantial uncertainty remains in the values and ratios commonly assumed when parameterising turbulence. Over three melt seasons, eddy covariance observations were implemented to derive the momentum and scalar roughness lengths at several locations on two mid-latitude mountain glaciers. In addition, two techniques were developed in this study for the remote estimation of momentum roughness length, utilising lidar-derived digital elevation models with a 1×1 m resolution. Seasonal mean momentum roughness length values derived from eddy covariance observations at each location ranged from 0.7 to 4.5 mm for ice surfaces and 0.5 to 2.4 mm for snow surfaces. From one season to the next, mean momentum roughness length values over ice remained relatively consistent at a given location (0–1 mm difference between seasonal mean values), while within a season, temporal variability in momentum roughness length over melting snow was found to be substantial (> an order of magnitude). The two remote techniques were able to differentiate between ice and snow cover and return momentum roughness lengths that were within 1–2 mm (≪ an order of magnitude) of the in situ eddy covariance values. Changes in wind direction affected the magnitude of the momentum roughness length due to the anisotropic nature of features on a melting glacier surface. Persistence in downslope wind direction on the glacier surfaces, however, reduced the influence of this variability. Scalar roughness length values showed considerable variation (up to 2.5 orders of magnitude) between locations and seasons and no evidence of a constant ratio with momentum roughness length or each other. Of the tested estimation methods, the Andreas (1987) surface renewal model returned scalar roughness lengths closest to those derived from eddy covariance observations. Combining this scalar method with the remote techniques developed here for estimating momentum roughness length may facilitate the distributed parameterisation of turbulent heat flux over glacier surfaces without in situ measurements.

Observations of Gap Flow in the Wipp Valley on 20 October 1999: Evidence of Subsidence

2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 984-1001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomislav Marić ◽  
Dale R. Durran
Keyword(s):  
Inversion Layer ◽  
Temperature Inversion ◽  
Turbulent Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Thermodynamic Structure ◽  
Gap Flow ◽  
Lidar Measurements ◽  
Turbulent Heat Fluxes

Abstract Using extensive observations collected from various platforms around the Brenner Pass in the Austrian Alps during the Mesoscale Alpine Programme, a detailed description of the kinematic and thermodynamic structure of the shallow-foehn event that occurred on 20 October 1999 in the Wipp Valley is constructed. Downstream of the gap the flow develops a well-mixed surface layer capped by a relatively strong temperature inversion of 5–6 K. Such inversions are often assumed to be kinematically similar to the free surface at the top of a liquid; however, the data suggest the presence of strong subsidence through the mean position of the inversion layer capping the flow. Such subsidence is supported by in situ aircraft observations and Doppler lidar measurements but is not consistent with the observed turbulent heat fluxes, which are too small to account for the diabatic heating required by the isentrope-relative downward velocities. The 1-Hz time resolution of the P3 data may, however, be too coarse to correctly capture the full turbulent heat flux.

scholarly journals Evaluation of OAFlux datasets based on in situ air-sea flux tower observations over the Yongxing Islands in 2016

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fenghua Zhou ◽  
Rongwang Zhang ◽  
Rui Shi ◽  
Ju Chen ◽  
Yunkai He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Turbulent Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Coefficient Of Determination ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Flux Tower

Abstract. The high-quality Yongxing air-sea flux tower (YXASFT), which was specially designed for air-sea boundary layer flux-related observations, was constructed on Yongxing Island in the South China Sea (SCS). Surface bulk variable measurements were collected during a one-year period from 2016/02/01 to 2017/01/31. The sensible heat flux (SHF) and latent heat flux (LHF) were further derived via the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment version 3.0 (COARE3.0) using those variables. This study employed the YXASFT in situ observations to evaluate the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) OAFlux reanalysis data products in the SCS. The study period was divided into the spring, summer_autumn and winter periods to conduct seasonal comparisons for each variable. First, the reliability of COARE3.0 data in the SCS was validated using direct turbulent heat flux measurements via an eddy covariance flux (ECF) system. The LHF data derived from COARE3.0 are highly consistent with the ECF measurements with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.78. Second, to conduct seasonal comparisons, the overall reliabilities of the bulk OAFlux variables diminish in order from Ta, U, Qa to Ts based on a combination of R2 values and biases. OAFlux overestimates (underestimates) U (Qa) throughout the year and provides better estimates of both variables in the winter and spring than in the summer_autumn period, which seems to be highly correlated with the monsoon climate in the SCS. The lowest R2 value is observed between the OAFlux-estimated and YXASFT-observed Ts, indicating that Ts is the least reliable product and should thus be used with considerable caution. In terms of the heat fluxes, OAFlux considerably overestimates LHF with an ocean heat loss bias of 52 w/m2 (73 % of the observed mean) in the spring, and the seasonal OAFlux LHF performance is consistent with U and Qa. The OAFlux-estimated SHF appears to be poorly representative with enormous overestimations in the spring and winter, while its performance is much better during the summer_autumn period. Third, an analysis reveals that the biases in Qa are the most dominant factor on the LHF biases in the spring and winter and that the biases in both Qa and U are responsible for controlling the biases in LHF during the summer_autumn period. The biases in Ts are responsible for controlling the SHF biases, and the effects of biases in Ts on the biases in SHF during the spring and winter are much greater than that in the summer_autumn period.

scholarly journals Evaluation of OAFlux datasets based on in situ air–sea flux tower observations over Yongxing Island in 2016

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 6091-6106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fenghua Zhou ◽  
Rongwang Zhang ◽  
Rui Shi ◽  
Ju Chen ◽  
Yunkai He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Turbulent Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Coefficient Of Determination ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Autumn Period ◽  
Flux Tower

Abstract. The Yongxing air–sea flux tower (YXASFT), which was specially designed for air–sea boundary layer observations, was constructed on Yongxing Island in the South China Sea (SCS). Surface bulk variable measurements were collected during a 1-year period from 1 February 2016 to 31 January 2017. The sensible heat flux (SHF) and latent heat flux (LHF) were further derived via the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment version 3.0 (COARE3.0). This study employed the YXASFT in situ observations to evaluate the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) Objectively Analyzed Air–Sea Fluxes (OAFlux) reanalysis data products. First, the reliability of COARE3.0 data in the SCS was validated using direct turbulent heat flux measurements via an eddy covariance flux (ECF) system. The LHF data derived from COARE3.0 are highly consistent with the ECF with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.78. Second, the overall reliabilities of the bulk OAFlux variables were diminished in the order of Ta (air temperature), U(wind speed), Qa (air humidity) and Ts (sea surface temperature) based on a combination of R2 values and biases. OAFlux overestimates (underestimates) U (Qa) throughout the year and provides better estimates for winter and spring than in the summer–autumn period, which seems to be highly correlated with the monsoon climate in the SCS. The lowest R2 is between the OAFlux-estimated and YXASFT-observed Ts, indicating that Ts is the least reliable dataset and should thus be used with considerable caution. In terms of the heat fluxes, OAFlux considerably overestimates LHF with an ocean heat loss bias of 52 w m−2 in the spring, and the seasonal OAFlux LHF performance is consistent with U and Qa. The OAFlux-estimated SHF appears to be a poor representative, with enormous overestimations in the spring and winter, while its performance is much better during the summer–autumn period. Third, analysis reveals that the biases in Qa are the most dominant factor on the LHF biases in the spring and winter, and that the biases in both Qa and U are responsible for controlling the biases in LHF during the summer–autumn period. The biases in Ts are responsible for controlling the SHF biases, and the effects of biases in Ts on the biases in SHF during the spring and winter are much greater than that in the summer–autumn period.

scholarly journals Evaluation of different methods to model near-surface turbulent fluxes for an alpine glacier in the Cariboo Mountains, BC, Canada

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Radić ◽  
Brian Menounos ◽  
Joseph Shea ◽  
Noel Fitzpatrick ◽  
Mekdes A. Tessema ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Momentum Flux ◽  
Flow Model ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Exchange Coefficient ◽  
Katabatic Flow ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
Alpine Glacier ◽  
Turbulent Heat Fluxes

Abstract. As part of surface energy balance models used to simulate glacier melting, choosing parameterizations to adequately estimate turbulent heat fluxes is extremely challenging. This study aims to evaluate a set of bulk methods commonly used to estimate turbulent heat fluxes for a sloped glacier surface. The methods differ in their parameterizations of the bulk exchange coefficient that relates the fluxes to the mean meteorological variables measured 2 m above a glacier surface. The performance of 23 bulk approaches in simulating 30-min sensible and latent heat fluxes is evaluated against the measured fluxes from an open path eddy-covariance (OPEC) method. The evaluation is performed at a point scale of an alpine glacier, using one-level meteorological and OPEC observations from a multi-day periods in the 2010 and 2012 summer season. The analysis of the two independent seasons yielded similar findings, listed as following. The bulk method, with or without the commonly used Monin–Obukhov (M–O) stability functions, overestimates the turbulent heat fluxes over the observational period, mainly due to an overestimation of the momentum flux. In the absence of OPEC-derived M–O stability parameter, no method can successfully predict this parameter, which results in poor performances of the M–O stability corrections and consequently the bulk method. The OPEC-derived 30-min momentum flux is linearly related to the measured wind speed, contrary to the proposed quadratic relation by the commonly used bulk methods. An approach based on a katabatic flow model, which assumes a linear relation between the shear stress and the wind speed, outperforms any other bulk approach that we tested in simulating the momentum flux. In agreement with the katabatic flow model, we show that in a more stable atmosphere the bulk exchange coefficient for momentum is smaller. The sensible heat flux can be more successfully modeled if the bulk exchange coefficients for momentum and heat are allowed to follow different parametrization schemes, rather than assuming equal schemes as is the case in the common bulk methods. Further data from different glaciers are needed to investigate any universality of these findings.

scholarly journals Challenges in Modeling Turbulent Heat Fluxes to Snowpacks in Forest Clearings

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 1599-1616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. Conway ◽  
John W. Pomeroy ◽  
Warren D. Helgason ◽  
Nicholas J. Kinar
Keyword(s):  
Heat Exchange ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Turbulent Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Snow Surface ◽  
Turbulent Heat Exchange ◽  
Uncertainty Estimates ◽  
Model Tuning

Abstract Forest clearings are common features of evergreen forests and produce snowpack accumulation and melt differing from that in adjacent forests and open terrain. This study has investigated the challenges in specifying the turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat to snowpacks in forest clearings. The snowpack in two forest clearings in the Canadian Rockies was simulated using a one-dimensional (1D) snowpack model. A trade-off was found between optimizing against measured snow surface temperature or snowmelt when choosing how to specify the turbulent fluxes. Schemes using the Monin–Obukhov similarity theory tended to produce negatively biased surface temperature, while schemes that enhanced turbulent fluxes, to reduce the surface temperature bias, resulted in too much melt. Uncertainty estimates from Monte Carlo experiments showed that no realistic parameter set could successfully remove biases in both surface temperature and melt. A simple scheme that excludes atmospheric stability correction was required to successfully simulate surface temperature under low wind speed conditions. Nonturbulent advective fluxes and/or nonlocal sources of turbulence are thought to account for the maintenance of heat exchange in low-wind conditions. The simulation of snowmelt was improved by allowing enhanced latent heat fluxes during low-wind conditions. Caution is warranted when snowpack models are optimized on surface temperature, as model tuning may compensate for deficiencies in conceptual and numerical models of radiative, conductive, and turbulent heat exchange at the snow surface and within the snowpack. Such model tuning could have large impacts on the melt rate and timing of the snow-free transition in simulations of forest clearings within hydrological and meteorological models.

scholarly journals Djankuat glacier station in the North Caucasus, Russia: a database of glaciological, hydrological, and meteorological observations and stable isotope sampling results during 2007–2017

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1463-1481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina P. Rets ◽  
Viktor V. Popovnin ◽  
Pavel A. Toropov ◽  
Andrew M. Smirnov ◽  
Igor V. Tokarev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Precipitation Amount ◽  
Turbulent Fluxes ◽  
Water Runoff ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
The North ◽  
Meteorological Observations ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. This study presents a dataset on long-term multidisciplinary glaciological, hydrological, and meteorological observations and isotope sampling in a sparsely monitored alpine zone of the North Caucasus in the Djankuat research basin. The Djankuat glacier, which is the largest in the basin, was chosen as representative of the central North Caucasus during the International Hydrological Decade and is one of 30 “reference” glaciers in the world that have annual mass balance series longer than 50 years (Zemp et al., 2009). The dataset features a comprehensive set of observations from 2007 to 2017 and contains yearly measurements of snow depth and density; measurements of dynamics of snow and ice melting; measurements of water runoff, conductivity, turbidity, temperature, δ18O, δD at the main gauging station (844 samples in total) with an hourly or sub-daily time step depending on the parameter; data on δ18O and δ2H sampling of liquid precipitation, snow, ice, firn, and groundwater in different parts of the watershed taken regularly during melting season (485 samples in total); measurements of precipitation amount, air temperature, relative humidity, shortwave incoming and reflected radiation, longwave downward and upward radiation, atmospheric pressure, and wind speed and direction – measured at several automatic weather stations within the basin with 15 min to 1 h time steps; gradient meteorological measurements to estimate turbulent fluxes of heat and moisture, measuring three components of wind speed at a frequency of 10 Hz to estimate the impulse of turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat over the glacier surface by the eddy covariance method. Data were collected during the ablation period (June–September). The observations were halted in winter. The dataset is available from PANGAEA (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.894807, Rets et al., 2018a) and will be further updated. The dataset can be useful for developing and verifying hydrological, glaciological, and meteorological models for alpine areas, to study the impact of climate change on hydrology of mountain regions using isotopic and hydrochemical approaches in hydrology. As the dataset includes the measurements of hydrometeorological and glaciological variables during the catastrophic proglacial lake outburst in the neighboring Bashkara valley in September 2017, it is a valuable contribution to study lake outbursts.

scholarly journals Areal melt and discharge modelling of Storglaciären, Sweden

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 211-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regine Hock ◽  
Christian Noetzli
Keyword(s):  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Grid Point ◽  
Digital Terrain Model ◽  
Turbulent Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Terrain Model ◽  
Digital Terrain ◽  
One Year

A grid-based glacier melt-and-discharge model was applied to Storglaciären, a small valley glacier (3 km2) in northern Sweden, for the melt seasons of 1993 and 1994. The energy available for melt was estimated from a surface energy-balance model using meteorological data collected by automatic weather stations on the glacier. Net radiation and the turbulent heat fluxes were calculated hourly for every grid point of a 30 m resolution digital terrain model, using the measurements of temperature, humidity, wind speed and radiative fluxes on the glacier. Two different bulk approaches were used to calculate the turbulent fluxes and compared with respect to their impact on discharge simulations. Discharge of Storglaciären was simulated from calculated meltwater production and precipitation by three parallel linear reservoirs corresponding to the different storage properties of firn, snow and ice. The performance of the model was validated by comparing simulated discharge to measured discharge at the glacier snout. Depending on which parameterization of the turbulent fluxes was used, the timing and magnitude of simulated discharge was in good agreement with observed discharge, or simulated discharge was considerably underestimated in one year.

scholarly journals Effects of clouds on surface melting of Laohugou glacier No. 12, western Qilian Mountains, China

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (243) ◽  
pp. 89-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
JIZU CHEN ◽  
XIANG QIN ◽  
SHICHANG KANG ◽  
WENTAO DU ◽  
WEIJUN SUN ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Water Vapor Pressure ◽  
Longwave Radiation ◽  
Turbulent Heat Flux ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
Shortwave Radiation ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Glacier Melt

ABSTRACTWe analyzed a 2-year time series of meteorological data (January 2011–December 2012) from three automatic weather stations on Laohugou glacier No. 12, western Qilian Mountains, China. Air temperature, humidity and incoming radiation were significantly correlated between the three sites, while wind speed and direction were not. In this work, we focus on the effects of clouds on other meteorological parameters and on glacier melt. On an average, ~18% of top-of-atmosphere shortwave radiation was attenuated by the clear-sky atmosphere, and clouds attenuated a further 12%. Most of the time the monthly average increases in net longwave radiation caused by clouds were larger than decreases in net shortwave radiation but there was a tendency to lose energy during the daytime when melting was most intense. Air temperature and wind speed related to turbulent heat flux were found to suppress glacier melt during cloudy periods, while increased water vapor pressure during cloudy days could enhance glacier melt by reducing energy loss by latent heat. From these results, we have increased the physical understanding of the significance of cloud effects on continental glaciers.

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