2016/04/29 by Matti Leppäranta, Elisa Lindgren, Lauri Arvola +1
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Climate change and permafrost #Cryospheric studies and observations #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/aog.2016.12
openalex publication_date 2016/04/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
ABSTRACT Thermodynamics of a seasonal supraglacial lake were examined based on field data from three summers. At maximum, the lake body consisted of an upper layer with thin ice on top, and a lower layer with slush, hard ice and sediment at the bottom. Sublimation from the upper ice surface averaged to 0.7 mm d −1 , and melting in the ice interior averaged to 9.1 mm d −1 during summer. Albedo was on average 0.6 and light attenuation coefficient was ~1 m −1 . Averaged over December and January, and over 3 different years, we found that the net solar heating was 137 W m −2 , while the losses averaged to 62 W m −2 for the longwave radiation, 16 W m −2 for the sensible heat flux, 24 W m −2 for the latent heat flux and 3 W m −2 for the bottom flux. The depth scale is determined by the light attenuation distance and thermal diffusion coefficient, and the net liquid water volume ranged from 0.5 to 1.0 m in different years. The potential winter growth is more than summer melting, and thus the lake freezes up completely in winter in the present climate.