Quantifying supraglacial meltwater pathways in the Paakitsoq region, West Greenland

Koziol, Conrad; Arnold, Neil; Pope, Allen; Colgan, William

doi:10.1017/jog.2017.5

i

Quantifying supraglacial meltwater pathways in the Paakitsoq region, West Greenland

2017
By Koziol, Conrad ; Arnold, Neil ; Pope, Allen ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Journal of Glaciology
Personal Author:

Koziol, Conrad ; Arnold, Neil ; Pope, Allen ; Colgan, William
NOAA Program & Office:

NESDIS (National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service) ; CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences) ; NCEI (National Centers for Environmental Information)
Description:

Increased summer ice velocities on the Greenland ice sheet are driven by meltwater input to the subglacial environment. However, spatial patterns of surface input and partitioning of meltwater between different pathways to the base remain poorly understood. To further our understanding of surface drainage, we apply a supraglacial hydrology model to the Paakitsoq region, West Greenland for three contrasting melt seasons. During an average melt season, crevasses drain ~47% of surface runoff, lake hydrofracture drains ~3% during the hydrofracturing events themselves, while the subsequent surface-to-bed connections drain ~21% and moulins outside of lake basins drain ~15%. Lake hydrofracture forms the primary drainage pathway at higher elevations (above ~850 m) while crevasses drain a significant proportion of meltwater at lower elevations. During the two higher intensity melt seasons, model results show an increase (~5 and ~6% of total surface runoff) in the proportion of runoff drained above ~1300 m relative to the melt season of average intensity. The potential for interannual changes in meltwater partitioning could have implications for how the dynamics of the ice sheet respond to ongoing changes in meltwater production.
Source:

Journal of Glaciology, 63(239), 464-476
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.5
ISSN:

0022-1430 ; 1727-5652
Format:

pdf
Publisher:

Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Document Type:

Journal Article
License:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Rights Information:

CC BY
Compliance:

Library
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:f53e4ff273fff7c2674d9b76bcd4f1f5c6d6d38a62bee65d6dd5d56a7754d9a3a8a3ef2fd1c6560222894343cf523398f33b592fa1f5e5e87bbe1b6f79956cc8
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/68492/noaa_68492_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 839.91 KB ]

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