Glacier Meltwater Contributions and Glaciometeorological Regime of the Illecillewaet River Basin, British Columbia, Canada

Hirose, J. M.; Marshall, Shawn J.

doi:10.1080/07055900.2013.791614

Cited by 32 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…We evaluated our method to isolate late summer flows from glacierized catchments against other empirical and physically based approaches. To evaluate our results against mechanistic modeling efforts at a high temporal resolution (daily), we compared our results to those of Hirose and Marshall () for the Illecillewaet basin for the melt years of 2009, 2010, and 2011. Hirose and Marshall () measured mass–balance and meteorological data from the Illecillewaet glacier from 2009 to 2011 and used a distributed hydrologic model to quantify glacier melt from all 79 glaciers from May 1 to September 14.…”

Section: Study Area and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining annual cryosphere storage contributions to streamflow using historical hydrometric records

Brahney

Menounos

Wei

et al. 2017

Hydrological Processes

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Alpine glaciers and perennial snow fields are important hydrologic elements in many mountain environments providing runoff during the late summer and during periods of drought. Because relatively long records of glacier mass–balance data are absent from many glacierized catchments, it remains unclear to what extent shrinking perennial snow and glaciers have affected runoff trends from these watersheds. Here, we employ a hydrograph separation technique that uses a double mass curve in an attempt to isolate changes in runoff due to glacier retreat and disappearance of perennial snow. The method is tested using hydrometric data from 20 glacierized and 16 nonglacierized catchments in the Columbia Basin of Canada. The resulting estimates on cryosphere storage contribution to streamflow were well correlated to other regional estimates on the basis of measurements as well as empirical and mechanistic models. Annual cryosphere runoff changed from +19 to −55% during the period 1975–2012, with an average decline of 26%. For August runoff, these changes ranged from +17 to −66%, with an average decrease of 24%. Reduction of cryosphere contributions to annual and late summer flows is expected to continue in the coming decades as glaciers and the perennial snow patches shrink. Our method to isolate changes in late summer cryospheric storage contributions can be used as a first order estimate on changes in glacier contributions to flow and may help researchers and water managers target watersheds for further analysis.

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Section: Study Area and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining annual cryosphere storage contributions to streamflow using historical hydrometric records

Brahney

Menounos

Wei

et al. 2017

Hydrological Processes

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“…Brock et al (2000) showed that these effects can be empirically approximated as a function of cumulative melt or maximum daily temperatures. This approach is adapted here to represent snow albedo decline through the summer melt season as a function of cumulative positive degree days, D d , after Hirose and Marshall (2013):…”

Section: Distributed Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(7) until the underlying surface is exposed again, after which albedo is set to be equal to its pre-freshened value. Summer precipitation events are modelled as random events, with the number of events from May through September, N P , treated as a free variable (Hirose and Marshall, 2013). The amount of daily precipitation within these events is modelled with a uniform random distribution varying from 1 to 10 mm.…”

Section: Distributed Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meltwater run-off from Haig Glacier, Canadian Rocky Mountains, 2002–2013

Marshall

2014

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract.Observations of high-elevation meteorological conditions, glacier mass balance, and glacier run-off are sparse in western Canada and the Canadian Rocky Mountains, leading to uncertainty about the importance of glaciers to regional water resources. This needs to be quantified so that the impacts of ongoing glacier recession can be evaluated with respect to alpine ecology, hydroelectric operations, and water resource management. In this manuscript the seasonal evolution of glacier run-off is assessed for an alpine watershed on the continental divide in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The study area is a headwaters catchment of the Bow River, which flows eastward to provide an important supply of water to the Canadian prairies. Meteorological, snowpack, and surface energy balance data collected at Haig Glacier from 2002 to 2013 were analysed to evaluate glacier mass balance and run-off. Annual specific discharge from snow-and ice-melt on Haig Glacier averaged 2350 mm water equivalent from 2002 to 2013, with 42 % of the run-off derived from melting of glacier ice and firn, i.e. water stored in the glacier reservoir. This is an order of magnitude greater than the annual specific discharge from non-glacierized parts of the Bow River basin. From 2002 to 2013, meltwater derived from the glacier storage was equivalent to 5-6 % of the flow of the Bow River in Calgary in late summer and 2-3 % of annual discharge. The basin is typical of most glacier-fed mountain rivers, where the modest and declining extent of glacierized area in the catchment limits the glacier contribution to annual run-off. IntroductionMeltwater run-off from glacierized catchments is an interesting and poorly understood water resource. Glaciers provide a source of interannual stability in streamflow, supplementing snow melt, and rainfall (e.g. Fountain and Tangborn, 1985). This is particularly significant in warm, dry years (i.e. drought conditions) when ice melt from glaciers provides the main source of surface run-off once seasonal snow is depleted (e.g. Hopkinson and Young, 1998). At the same time, glacier run-off presents an unreliable future due to glacier recession in most of the world's mountain regions (Meier et al., 2007;Radić and Hock, 2011).There is considerable uncertainty concerning the importance of glacier run-off in different mountain regions of the world. As an example, recent literature reports glacier inputs of 2 % (Jeelani et al., 2012) Different studies cannot be compared, as the extent of glacier run-off depends on the time of year and the proportion of upstream glacier cover. Close to the glacier source (i.e. for low-order alpine streams draining glacierized valPublished by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 5182 S. J. Marshall: Meltwater run-off from Haig Glacier leys), glacial inputs approach 100 % in late summer or in the dry season. Further downstream, distributed rainfall and snowmelt inputs accrue, often filtered through the groundwater system such that glacier inputs diminish in imp...

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“…• C −1 on Morteratschgletscher, Switzerland (Klok and Oerlemans, 2004), and Illecillewaet Glacier, British Columbia (Hirose and Marshall, 2013), −0.68 ± 0.05 m w.e.…”

Section: Haig Glacier Energy Balance Sensitivities and Feedbacksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The snowpack thickness is initialized on 1 May of each year, set to the observed value measured during the annual winter mass balance survey. During the melt season, which is assumed to start after this date, seasonal snow albedo decreases as a function of cumulative positive degree days ( PDD) following Hirose and Marshall (2013):…”

Section: Surface Energy Balance and Melt Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface energy balance sensitivity to meteorological variability on Haig Glacier, Canadian Rocky Mountains

Ebrahimi

Marshall

2016

The Cryosphere

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Abstract. Energy exchanges between the atmosphere and the glacier surface control the net energy available for snow and ice melt. This paper explores the response of a midlatitude glacier in the Canadian Rocky Mountains to daily and interannual variations in the meteorological parameters that govern the surface energy balance. We use an energy balance model to run sensitivity tests to perturbations in temperature, specific humidity, wind speed, incoming shortwave radiation, glacier surface albedo, and winter snowpack depth. Variables are perturbed (i) in isolation, (ii) including internal feedbacks, and (iii) with co-evolution of meteorological perturbations, derived from the North American regional climate reanalysis (NARR) over the period 1979-2014. Summer melt at this site has the strongest sensitivity to interannual variations in temperature, albedo, and specific humidity, while fluctuations in cloud cover, wind speed, and winter snowpack depth have less influence. Feedbacks to temperature forcing, in particular summer albedo evolution, double the melt sensitivity to a temperature change. When meteorological perturbations covary through the NARR forcing, summer temperature anomalies remain important in driving interannual summer energy balance and melt variability, but they are reduced in importance relative to an isolated temperature forcing. Covariation of other variables (e.g., clear skies, giving reduced incoming longwave radiation) may be partially compensating for the increase in temperature. The methods introduced in this paper provide a framework that can be extended to compare the sensitivity of glaciers in different climate regimes, e.g., polar, maritime, or tropical environments, and to assess the importance of different meteorological parameters in different regions.

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Glacier Meltwater Contributions and Glaciometeorological Regime of the Illecillewaet River Basin, British Columbia, Canada

Cited by 32 publications

References 51 publications

Determining annual cryosphere storage contributions to streamflow using historical hydrometric records

Determining annual cryosphere storage contributions to streamflow using historical hydrometric records

Meltwater run-off from Haig Glacier, Canadian Rocky Mountains, 2002–2013

Surface energy balance sensitivity to meteorological variability on Haig Glacier, Canadian Rocky Mountains

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