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| Titel |
Modeling of the present surface mass balance over the Ellesmere Island using the regional climate model MAR |
| VerfasserIn |
Sylvain Watelet, Brice Noël, Xavier Fettweis, Michel Erpicum |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2013
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 15 (2013) |
| Datensatznummer |
250076449
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| Zusammenfassung |
| High latitudes are the most affected by recent global warming due to the albedo positive
feedback. In particular, there is the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) which contains
one-third of the world’s land ice, outside both Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets.
According to GRACE measurements between 2003 and 2010, the CAA glaciers and ice caps
(Ellesmere and Baffin Island) are those with the highest melt rates (respectively -34±6 and
-33±5 Gt.yr-1), after Alaska and the two ice sheets.
The Ellesmere Island, part of the CAA, is located between 76 and 83Ë N and between 61
and 92Ë W, beyond the Arctic Circle. About 40% of its surface is covered by ice caps and
glaciers, which represent 77600 km2. Also included in our region of interest, there are Axel
Heiberg and Devon Islands which surround Ellesmere respectively by west and south
sides.
In this study, we reconstruct the near surface climate and surface mass balance (SMB) of
these ice caps between 1979 and 2012, using the regional climate model MAR, forced at its
boundaries by the ERA-Interim reanalysis.
As validation, we first compare MAR climatic outputs to weather station measurements
(temperature and precipitation) from the Environment Canada. An evaluation of MAR versus
ERA-Interim and recent ASR reanalysis is also performed. This comparison includes three
MAR simulations using different spatial resolutions (25, 20 and 15 km) for testing the
sensitivity of results to this parameter.
Finally, we characterise the spatiotemporal variability of the retrieved SMB and other
climate parameters. Furthermore, a comparative analysis between this work and recent
estimations, remote data and in situ observations of SMB is achieved in order to validate our
model outputs. |
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