HR: 1340h
AN: C23A-0987    [Abstracts]
TI: Distributed Energy-Balance Models at the Surface of the Taylor Glacier, Antarctica
AU: * Bliss, A K
EM: abliss@berkeley.edu
AF: University of California at Berkeley, Department of Geography 507 McCone Hall #4740, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Cuffey, K M
EM: kcuffey@socrates.berkeley.edu
AF: University of California at Berkeley, Department of Geography 507 McCone Hall #4740, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Kavanaugh, J L
EM: jeff_kavanaugh@yahoo.com
AF: University of California at Berkeley, Department of Geography 507 McCone Hall #4740, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Morse, D L
EM: morse@ig.utexas.edu
AF: University of Texas at Austin, Institute for Geophysics Jackson School of Geosciences, Austin, TX 78712 United States
AB: As part of the effort to understand the climate history of Antarctica and its possible responses to anthropogenic climate change, our research group has undertaken a measurement and modeling effort on the Taylor Glacier, Antarctica. The Taylor Glacier has a unique potential for informing the way we think about how Antarctic glaciers have responded to past climate changes for the following reasons: an ice core was drilled at the source of the glacier, at Taylor Dome, in the mid 1990's; the glacier terminates on land so we have information about past glacier terminus positions from a series of moraines; and biology in the Taylor Valley depends on melt water and nutrients from the glacier. Among other field activities, we set up 6 permanent weather stations on the Taylor Glacier in the 2003-4 field season and made ablation measurements at about 250 stakes. We present results from the first year's weather station data. The stations are transmitting the data back to us via the ARGOS satellite system. The weather data has been incorporated into a few previously-published energy-balance models (e.g. the AMUNDSEN model and the Excel-based model by Brock and Arnold) that have been modified to account for the polar nature of the Taylor Glacier. We will present results from these models along with a new model that uses wind speed data at 2 levels and temperature and relative humidity at 1 level to predict ablation. Maps of predicted ablation are compared with measurements from ablation stakes. Animations of the weather station data and relevant AVHRR satellite imagery are presented and are also available on the web at the URL below.
UR: http://geography.berkeley.edu/~abliss/
DE: 9310 Antarctica
DE: 3349 Polar meteorology
DE: 1827 Glaciology (1863)
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (1827)
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (3309)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting