Modeling of Interannual Snow and Ice Storage in High-Altitude Regions by Dynamic Equilibrium Concept
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 19, Issue 12
Abstract
The energy and mass balance model for terrestrial ice and snow is an essential tool for the future projection of interannual snow and ice storage including glaciers. However, the snow models in the hydrologic engineering field have barely considered the long-term behavior of the snow and ice storage because the time scale of glacier dynamics is much longer than those of river flow and seasonal snowmelt. This paper proposes an appropriate treatment for inland glaciers as systems in dynamic equilibrium that stay constant under a static climate condition. It is conjectured that the snow and ice vertical movement from high-elevation areas to valleys (lower elevation areas) by means of wind redistribution, avalanches, and glacial motion may be considered as an equilibrator of the snow and ice storage system because it stimulates snow and ice ablation. In order to demonstrate this concept, a simple dynamic equilibrium model for regional to global scales is proposed and applied to the Pamirs. The interannual snow and ice storage in the Pamir Mountains may lose about half of their volume by the end of 21st century by the anticipated global warming based on nine selected general circulation model (GCM) projections.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge IPCC and various research institutes for the GCM output data, National Snow and Ice Data Center for WGI and GLIMS, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, for MODIS snow product, USGS for GIS map layers, and State Agency for Hydrometeorology, Tajikistan, for the river flow, glacier, and snow data. The comments of four anonymous referees improved this paper.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 19 • Issue 12 • December 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 12, 2013
Accepted: Feb 18, 2014
Published online: Feb 20, 2014
Published in print: Dec 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 17, 2014
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