[en] We report measurements of ablation rates of the bottom of two supraglacial lakes and of temperatures at different depths collected during the summers of 2010 and 2011 in west Greenland. To our knowledge, this is the first time that such data sets are reported and discussed in the literature. The measured ablation rates at the bottom of the two lakes are of the order of ∼6 cm/day, versus a rate of ∼2.5–3 cm/day in the case of bare ice of surrounding areas. Though our measurements suggest the presence of a vertical temperature gradient, it is not possible to draw final conclusions as the measured gradient is smaller than the accuracy of our temperature sensors. In-situ measurements are compared with the results of a thermodynamic model forced with the outputs of a regional climate model. In general, the model is able to satisfactorily reproduce the measured quantities with RMSE of the order of 3–4 cm for the ablation and ∼1.5°C in the case of water temperature. Our results confirm that the ablation at the bottom of supraglacial lakes plays an important role on the overall lake volume with the ablation in the case of ice covered by a lake being 110–135% of that over bare ice at nearby locations. Beside ice sheet hydrological implications, melting at the bottom of a supraglacial lake might affect estimates of lake volume from spaceborne visible and near-infrared measurements.
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Tedesco, Marco
Luthje, M.
Steffen, K.
Steiner, N.
Fettweis, Xavier ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Topoclimatologie
Willis, I.
Bayou, N.
Banwell, A.
Language :
English
Title :
Measurement and modeling of ablation of the bottom of supraglacial lakes in western Greenland
Publication date :
18 January 2012
Journal title :
Geophysical Research Letters
ISSN :
0094-8276
eISSN :
1944-8007
Publisher :
American Geophysical Union, Washington, United States - District of Columbia
Key Points:
- Ablation of bottom of supraglacial lake obtained from pressure transducers data
- Ablation rate at the bottom of a lake is about double that of bare ice
- The ablation rate and temperature in the lake can be satisfactorily modeled
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