Energy and mass balance dynamics of the seasonal snowpack at two high-altitude sites in the Himalaya

Stigter, Emmy E.; Steiner, Jakob; Koch, Inka; Saloranta, Tuomo; Kirkham, James D.; Immerzeel, Walter W.

doi:10.1016/j.coldregions.2021.103233

Cited by 23 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Additionally, we discarded data of 74 days (2975 data points) out of total 1664 days (76248 data points; 2009-2020) when albedo was below 0.4 (refer to Table S2 for snow-free dates). This albedo threshold value is similar to the minimum albedo (0.41 to 0.46) of continuous snow cover at the Ganja La and Yala sites in Nepal (Stigter et al, 2021;Kirkham et al, 2019). 125…”

Section: Meteorological Data and Gapssupporting

confidence: 67%

“…Compared to other fluxes, P on glacier/snow is negligible (Hock, 2005;Kayastha et al, 1999) therefore neglected here. G was found to be negligible or close to 0.0 ± 1.0 W m -2 at the on-glacier AWS-G site on the Chhota Shigri Glacier during winter 2012/13 (Azam et al, 2014a) region (Stigter et al, 2021). All fluxes are expressed in W m -2 and defined as positive when directed towards the surface and negative when away from the surface.…”

Section: Surface Energy Balance (Seb)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, Denby and Greuell (2000) showed that the bulk-aerodynamic method gives reasonable results in high wind speeds, even in katabatic wind conditions. Therefore, the bulk-aerodynamic method is applied in the present study as it has already been applied in this glacier and several studies in the HK region, where atmospheric conditions are similar with high winds Stigter et al, 2021;Azam et al, 2014a).…”

Section: Turbulent Energy Fluxmentioning

confidence: 99%

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11-year record of wintertime snow surface energy balance and sublimation at 4863 m a.s.l. on Chhota Shigri Glacier moraine (western Himalaya, India)

Mandal

Angchuk

Azam

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Analysis of surface energy balance (SEB) at the glacier surface is the most comprehensive way to explain the atmosphere-glacier interactions but that requires extensive data. In this study, we analyse an 11-year (2009–2020) record of the meteorological dataset from an automatic weather station installed at 4863 m a.s.l., on a lateral moraine of the Chhota Shigri Glacier in the western Himalaya. The study was carried out over the winter months (December to April) to understand SEB drivers and snow sublimation. Further, we examine the role of cloud cover on SEB and turbulent heat fluxes. The turbulent heat fluxes were calculated using the bulk-aerodynamic method, including stability corrections. The net short-wave radiation was the primary energy source. However, the turbulent heat fluxes dissipated a significant amount of energy. The cloud cover plays an important role in limiting the incoming short-wave radiation by 70 %. It also restricts the turbulent heat fluxes by around 50 %, consequently less snow sublimation. During the winter period, turbulent latent heat flux contributed the largest (63 %) in the total SEB, followed by net all-wave radiation (29 %) and sensible heat flux (8 %). Sublimation rates were three times higher in clear-sky conditions than overcast, indicating a strong control of cloud cover in turbulent latent heat flux. Dry air, along with the high snow surface temperature and wind speed, favours sublimation. We also observed that strong and cold winds, possibly through mid-latitude western disturbances, impede sublimation by bringing high moisture content in the region and cooling the snow surface. The estimated snow sublimation fraction was 16–42 % of the total winter snowfall at the study site. This indicates snow sublimation is an essential parameter to be considered in the glaciohydrological modelling at the high mountain Himalayan catchments.

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Section: Meteorological Data and Gapssupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Surface Energy Balance (Seb)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Turbulent Energy Fluxmentioning

confidence: 99%

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11-year record of wintertime snow surface energy balance and sublimation at 4863 m a.s.l. on Chhota Shigri Glacier moraine (western Himalaya, India)

Mandal

Angchuk

Azam

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Above estimates of snowmelt in the Indus basin were obtained using temperature index models [5,6]. These empirical models rely on air temperature to compute snowmelt while the energy balance of the snow cover is also controlled by additional meteorological variables such as shortwave and longwave radiation, wind speed and air humidity [8,9]. Another limitation of such models is that they do not account for the sublimation of the snow cover.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Snowmelt and Snow Sublimation in the Indus Basin

Gascoin

2021

Water

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The Indus basin is considered as the one with the highest dependence on snowmelt runoff in High Mountain Asia. The recent High Mountain Asia snow reanalysis enables us to go beyond previous studies by evaluating both snowmelt and snow sublimation at the basin scale. Over 2000–2016, basin-average snowmelt was 101 ± 11 Gt.a−1 (121 ± 13 mm.a−1), which represents about 25–30% of basin-average annual precipitation. Snow sublimation accounts for 11% of the mean annual snow ablation, but with a large spatial variability across the basin.

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“…This integrated modeling system supports a better understanding of the eco-hydrological responses to water management measures, and the development of the scientifically The catchment hydrology understanding, at Parlung No. 4 and elsewhere, will be improved in the future by utilizing a more physically based, land-surface model which incorporates detailed parameterizations of phase change thresholds [22] and account for meltwater refreezing [33] as well as surface and wind-driven sublimation [34].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Source Hydrological Data Products to Monitor High Asian River Basins and Regional Water Security

Menenti

et al. 2021

Remote Sensing

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This project explored the integrated use of satellite, ground observations and hydrological distributed models to support water resources assessment and monitoring in High Mountain Asia (HMA). Hydrological data products were generated taking advantage of the synergies of European and Chinese data assets and space-borne observation systems. Energy-budget-based glacier mass balance and hydrological models driven by satellite observations were developed. These models can be applied to describe glacier-melt contribution to river flow. Satellite hydrological data products were used for forcing, calibration, validation and data assimilation in distributed river basin models. A pilot study was carried out on the Red River basin. Multiple hydrological data products were generated using the data collected by Chinese satellites. A new Evapo-Transpiration (ET) dataset from 2000 to 2018 was generated, including plant transpiration, soil evaporation, rainfall interception loss, snow/ice sublimation and open water evaporation. Higher resolution data were used to characterize glaciers and their response to environmental forcing. These studies focused on the Parlung Zangbo Basin, where glacier facies were mapped with GaoFeng (GF), Sentinal-2/Multi-Spectral Imager (S2/MSI) and Landsat8/Operational Land Imager (L8/OLI) data. The geodetic mass balance was estimated between 2000 and 2017 with Zi-Yuan (ZY)-3 Stereo Images and the SRTM DEM. Surface velocity was studied with Landsat5/Thematic Mapper (L5/TM), L8/OLI and S2/MSI data over the period 2013–2019. An updated method was developed to improve the retrieval of glacier albedo by correcting glacier reflectance for anisotropy, and a new dataset on glacier albedo was generated for the period 2001–2020. A detailed glacier energy and mass balance model was developed with the support of field experiments at the Parlung No. 4 Glacier and the 24 K Glacier, both in the Tibetan Plateau. Besides meteorological measurements, the field experiments included glaciological and hydrological measurements. The energy balance model was formulated in terms of enthalpy for easier treatment of water phase transitions. The model was applied to assess the spatial variability in glacier melt. In the Parlung No. 4 Glacier, the accumulated glacier melt was between 1.5 and 2.5 m w.e. in the accumulation zone and between 4.5 and 6.0 m w.e. in the ablation zone, reaching 6.5 m w.e. at the terminus. The seasonality in the glacier mass balance was observed by combining intensive field campaigns with continuous automatic observations. The linkage of the glacier and snowpack mass balance with water resources in a river basin was analyzed in the Chiese (Italy) and Heihe (China) basins by developing and applying integrated hydrological models using satellite retrievals in multiple ways. The model FEST-WEB was calibrated using retrievals of Land Surface Temperature (LST) to map soil hydrological properties. A watershed model was developed by coupling ecohydrological and socioeconomic systems. Integrated modeling is supported by an updated and parallelized data assimilation system. The latter exploits retrievals of brightness temperature (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer, AMSR), LST (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS), precipitation (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and FengYun (FY)-2D) and in-situ measurements. In the case study on the Red River Basin, a new algorithm has been applied to disaggregate the SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) soil moisture retrievals by making use of the correlation between evaporative fraction and soil moisture.

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Energy and mass balance dynamics of the seasonal snowpack at two high-altitude sites in the Himalaya

Cited by 23 publications

References 45 publications

11-year record of wintertime snow surface energy balance and sublimation at 4863 m a.s.l. on Chhota Shigri Glacier moraine (western Himalaya, India)

11-year record of wintertime snow surface energy balance and sublimation at 4863 m a.s.l. on Chhota Shigri Glacier moraine (western Himalaya, India)

Snowmelt and Snow Sublimation in the Indus Basin

Multi-Source Hydrological Data Products to Monitor High Asian River Basins and Regional Water Security

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