Estimation of Glacier Surface Melt from Low-Elevation Station Data
Abstract
There is a growing need to accurately model the extent that glacial melt and runoff are affected by climate change. Measurement and modelling of fields in a glacial melt model is difficult due to complex mountain terrain. The variance of meteorological fields between measurement locations and glaciers lacks precision as geographic and terrain differences render interpolation difficult and inaccurate. This project ameliorates this issue for the Canadian Rockies by calculating how melt model parameters vary between Haig Glacier and ‘reference stations’ in Calgary, the mountain parks, and NARR. Regression and correlation analyses determine which stations accurately predict conditions on Haig Glacier for critical variables. If a statistically strong relationship is present, a transfer function is calculated between the given sites for the given variable. This function is then used in a glacial melt model to determine the extent to which conditions on Haig can be predicted from more accessible locations.
Description
Keywords
Geography
Citation
Rozek, A. (2016). Estimation of Glacier Surface Melt from Low-Elevation Station Data (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25957