The Mass and Energy Exchange of a Tibetan Glacier: Distributed Modeling and Climate Sensitivity |
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Authors: | Kumud Acharya Zhongbo Yu Zhongmin Liang Fengge Su |
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Institution: | 1. Division of Hydrologic Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Las Vegas, Nevada;2. State Key Laboratory of Hydrology‐Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China;3. Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada ‐ Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada;4. College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing, China;5. Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China |
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Abstract: | Most glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are not closely monitored for mass balance (MB) due to their inaccessibility, which makes it difficult to better understand the dynamics of glacial advancement or retreat. Surface energy budget, MB, and the resulting melt runoff were calculated for Zhadang glacier (5,710 m above sea level) of the central TP. Energy balance was calculated on 30‐m square grids for the summers of 2007 and 2008. On average, net radiation dominated the total energy source (66%) while the residual was supplied by sensible heat flux. More than 67% of the energy sink was available for melting on the glacier. Thus, less than 33% of the total energy was consumed by latent heat flux. A large and a slightly negative summer MB were calculated for the 2007 and 2008 summers, respectively. The high sensitivity of the glacier to air temperature may indicate that the lower than average seasonal temperature was more important than the increased precipitation for the slightly negative MB in the summer of 2008. Comparisons of glacial melt runoff indicated that rainfall and snowmelt were the dominant contribution to total runoff in the glacierized basin and the ice melting is also very important. Glacial melt calculation provides a basis for quantifying glacial melt‐runoff contribution to the river streamflow in the TP. |
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Keywords: | glacial mass balance precipitation runoff climate variability Tibetan Plateau |
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