A quantitative understanding of snow thickness and snow water equivalent (SWE) on glaciers is essential to a wide range of scientific and resource management topics. However, robust SWE estimates are observationally challenging, in part because SWE can vary abruptly over short distances in complex terrain due to interactions between topography and meteorological processes. In spring 2013, we measured snow accumulation on several glaciers around the Gulf of Alaska using both ground-and helicopter-based ground-penetrating radar surveys, complemented by extensive ground truth observations. We found that SWE can be highly variable (40% difference) over short spatial scales (tens to hundreds of meters), especially in the ablation zone where the underlying ice surfaces are typically rough. Elevation provides the dominant basin-scale influence on SWE, with gradients ranging from 115 to 400 mm/100 m. Regionally, total accumulation and the accumulation gradient are strongly controlled by a glacier's distance from the coastal moisture source. Multiple linear regressions, used to calculate distributed SWE fields, show that robust results require adequate sampling of the true distribution of multiple terrain parameters. Final SWE estimates (comparable to winter balances) show reasonable agreement with both the Parameter-elevation Relationships on Independent Slopes Model climate data set (9-36% difference) and the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Benchmark Glaciers (6-36% difference). All the glaciers in our study exhibit substantial sensitivity to changing snow-rain fractions, regardless of their location in a coastal or continental climate. While process-based SWE projections remain elusive, the collection of ground-penetrating radar (GPR)-derived data sets provides a greatly enhanced perspective on the spatial distribution of SWE and will pave the way for future work that may eventually allow such projections.
机构:
Univ Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
Arendt, Anthony
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Luthcke, Scott
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NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Planetary Geodynam Lab, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
Luthcke, Scott
;
Gardner, Alex
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Clark Univ, Grad Sch Geog, Worcester, MA 01610 USA
Univ Michigan, Dept Atmospher Ocean & Space Sci, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
Gardner, Alex
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O'Neel, Shad
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US Geol Survey, Anchorage, AK USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
O'Neel, Shad
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Hill, David
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Oregon State Univ, Sch Civil & Construct Engn, Corvallis, OR 97331 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
Hill, David
;
Moholdt, Geir
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Univ Calif San Diego, Scripps Inst Oceanog, La Jolla, CA 92093 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
Moholdt, Geir
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Abdalati, Waleed
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Univ Colorado, Earth Sci & Observat Ctr, Boulder, CO 80309 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
机构:
Univ Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
Arendt, Anthony
;
Luthcke, Scott
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h-index: 0
机构:
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Planetary Geodynam Lab, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
Luthcke, Scott
;
Gardner, Alex
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h-index: 0
机构:
Clark Univ, Grad Sch Geog, Worcester, MA 01610 USA
Univ Michigan, Dept Atmospher Ocean & Space Sci, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
Gardner, Alex
;
O'Neel, Shad
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h-index: 0
机构:
US Geol Survey, Anchorage, AK USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
O'Neel, Shad
;
Hill, David
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h-index: 0
机构:
Oregon State Univ, Sch Civil & Construct Engn, Corvallis, OR 97331 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
Hill, David
;
Moholdt, Geir
论文数: 0引用数: 0
h-index: 0
机构:
Univ Calif San Diego, Scripps Inst Oceanog, La Jolla, CA 92093 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA
Moholdt, Geir
;
Abdalati, Waleed
论文数: 0引用数: 0
h-index: 0
机构:
Univ Colorado, Earth Sci & Observat Ctr, Boulder, CO 80309 USAUniv Alaska Fairbanks, Inst Geophys, Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA