Air temperature variability in a high-elevation Himalayan catchment

Martin Heynen, Evan Miles, Silvan Ragettli, Pascal Buri, Walter Immerzeel, Francesca Pellicciotti

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

46 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Air temperature is a key control of processes affecting snow and glaciers in high-elevation catchments, including melt, snowfall and sublimation. It is therefore a key input variable to models of land–surface–atmosphere interaction. Despite this importance, its spatial variability is poorly understood and simple assumptions are made to extrapolate it from point observations to the catchment scale. We use a dataset of 2.75 years of air temperature measurements (from May 2012 to November 2014) at a network of up to 27 locations in the Langtang River, Nepal, catchment to investigate air temperature seasonality and consistency between years. We use observations from high elevations and from the easternmost section of the basin to corroborate previous findings of shallow lapse rates. Seasonal variability is strong, with shallowest lapse rates during the monsoon season. Diurnal variability is also strong and should be taken into account since processes such as melt have a pronounced diurnal variability. Use of seasonal lapse rates seems crucial for glacio-hydrological modelling, but seasonal lapse rates seem stable over the 2–3 years investigated. Lateral variability at transects across valley is high and dominated by aspect, with south-facing sites being warmer than north-facing sites and deviations from the fitted lapse rates of up to several degrees. Local factors (e.g. topographic shading) can reduce or enhance this effect. The interplay of radiation, aspect and elevation should be further investigated with high-elevation transects.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)212-222
JournalAnnals of Glaciology
Volume57
Issue number71
Early online date3 Mar 2016
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 3 Mar 2016

Keywords

  • debris-covered glaciers
  • glacier mass balance
  • glacier meteorology
  • glaciological instruments and methods
  • mountain glaciers
  • surface melt

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