Hydrologic response to extreme warm and cold summers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, East Antarctica

Doran, Peter T.; McKay, Christopher P.; Fountain, Andrew G.; Nylen, Thomas; McKnight, Diane M.; Jaros, Chris; Barrett, John E.

doi:10.1017/s0954102008001272

Cited by 132 publications

(160 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

156

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Conditions conducive to sublimation are the main limiting factors of surface melt in this environment (Hoffman et al, 2008), and the only time when significant melt events on glacier surfaces have been recorded is during prolonged "high" temperature events (e.g. Doran et al, 2008).…”

Section: Comparison Of Ablation Results With Other Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological drivers of ablation processes on a cold glacier in the semi-arid Andes of Chile

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Meteorological and surface change measurements collected during a 2.5 yr period are used to calculate surface mass and energy balances at 5324 m a.s.l. on Guanaco Glacier, a cold-based glacier in the semi-arid Andes of Chile. Meteorological conditions are marked by extremely low vapour pressures (annual mean of 1.1 hPa), strong winds (annual mean of 10 m s −1 ), shortwave radiation receipt persistently close to the theoretical site maximum during cloudfree days (mean annual 295 W m −2 ; summer hourly maximum 1354 W m −2 ) and low precipitation rates (mean annual 45 mm w.e.). Snowfall occurs sporadically throughout the year and is related to frontal events in the winter and convective storms during the summer months. Net shortwave radiation provides the greatest source of energy to the glacier surface, and net longwave radiation dominates energy losses. The turbulent latent heat flux is always negative, which means that the surface is always losing mass via sublimation, which is the main form of ablation at the site. Sublimation rates are most strongly correlated with net shortwave radiation, incoming shortwave radiation, albedo and vapour pressure. Low glacier surface temperatures restrict melting for much of the period, however episodic melting occurs during the austral summer, when warm, humid, calm and high pressure conditions restrict sublimation and make more energy available for melting. Low accumulation (131 mm w.e. over the period) and relatively high ablation (1435 mm w.e.) means that mass change over the period was negative (−1304 mm w.e.), which continued the negative trend recorded in the region over the last few decades.

show abstract

Section: Comparison Of Ablation Results With Other Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological drivers of ablation processes on a cold glacier in the semi-arid Andes of Chile

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, the mean data hide the seasonal variability and especially the sensitivity of the active layer that may alter hydrological and ecological conditions (Turner et al, 2009). An example is the anomalous summer conditions that have occurred in recent years in the MDVs, including the 'wet event' in December 2000 to January 2001 (Doran et al, 2008;Turner et al, 2009;Adlam et al, 2010). The other monitored regions in continental Antarctica also showed cold permafrost, with all measured mean ground temperatures below À8.38C.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal state of permafrost and active‐layer monitoring in the antarctic: Advances during the international polar year 2007–2009

Vieira

Bockheim

Guglielmin

et al. 2010

Permafrost & Periglacial

195

142

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Results obtained during the International Polar Year (IPY) on the thermal state of permafrost and the active layer in the Antarctic are presented, forming part of ANTPAS ('Antarctic Permafrost and Soils'), which was one of the key projects developed by the International Permafrost Association and the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research for the IPY. The number of boreholes for permafrost and active-layer monitoring was increased from 21 to 73 during the IPY, while CALM-S sites to monitor the active layer were increased from 18 to 28. Permafrost temperatures during the IPY were slightly below 08C in the South Shetlands near sea-level, showing that this area is near the climatic boundary of permafrost and has the highest sensitivity to climate change in the region. Permafrost temperatures were much lower in continental Antarctica: from the coast to the interior and with increasing elevation they ranged between À13.38C and À18.68C in Northern Victoria Land, from À17.48C to À22. during the IPY shows that the range of ground temperatures in the Antarctic is greater than in the Arctic.

show abstract

“…The opposite is the case for Antarctica with 100 % glacier cover and a strong relationship with air temperature. For example, Doran et al (2008) found up to 6000-fold increase in annual streamflow in a warm year compared to a cold year. For each of these regions, similar analyses as in this paper can be performed to investigate the occurrence and causing factors of snowmelt droughts and glaciermelt droughts.…”

Section: Hypothesis 1: For Each Region the Occurrence And Severity Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrological drought types in cold climates: quantitative analysis of causing factors and qualitative survey of impacts

Loon

Ploum

Parajka

et al. 2015

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. For drought management and prediction, knowledge of causing factors and socio-economic impacts of hydrological droughts is crucial. Propagation of meteorological conditions in the hydrological cycle results in different hydrological drought types that require separate analysis. In addition to the existing hydrological drought typology, we here define two new drought types related to snow and ice. A snowmelt drought is a deficiency in the snowmelt discharge peak in spring in snow-influenced basins and a glaciermelt drought is a deficiency in the glaciermelt discharge peak in summer in glacierised basins. In 21 catchments in Austria and Norway we studied the meteorological conditions in the seasons preceding and at the time of snowmelt and glaciermelt drought events. Snowmelt droughts in Norway were mainly controlled by below-average winter precipitation, while in Austria both temperature and precipitation played a role. For glaciermelt droughts, the effect of below-average summer air temperature was dominant, both in Austria and Norway. Subsequently, we investigated the impacts of temperature-related drought types (i.e. snowmelt and glaciermelt drought, but also cold and warm snow season drought and rain-to-snow-season drought). In historical archives and drought databases for the US and Europe many impacts were found that can be attributed to these temperature-related hydrological drought types, mainly in the agriculture and electricity production (hydropower) sectors. However, drawing conclusions on the frequency of occurrence of different drought types from reported impacts is difficult, mainly because of reporting biases and the inevitably limited spatial and temporal scales of the information. Finally, this study shows that complete integration of quantitative analysis of causing factors and qualitative analysis of impacts of temperature-related droughts is not yet possible. Analysis of selected events, however, points out that it can be a promising research area if more data on drought impacts become available.

show abstract

Hydrologic response to extreme warm and cold summers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, East Antarctica

Cited by 132 publications

References 28 publications

Meteorological drivers of ablation processes on a cold glacier in the semi-arid Andes of Chile

Meteorological drivers of ablation processes on a cold glacier in the semi-arid Andes of Chile

Thermal state of permafrost and active‐layer monitoring in the antarctic: Advances during the international polar year 2007–2009

Hydrological drought types in cold climates: quantitative analysis of causing factors and qualitative survey of impacts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About