Articles | Volume 10, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2887-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2887-2016
Research article
 | 
24 Nov 2016
Research article |  | 24 Nov 2016

Effects of local advection on the spatial sensible heat flux variation on a mountain glacier

Tobias Sauter and Stephan Peter Galos

Data sets

OpenCFD Ltd CFD software OpenFOAM http://www.openfoam.com

Adding complex terrain and stable atmospheric condition capability to the OpenFOAM-based flow solver of the simulator for on/offshore wind farm applications (SOWFA) M. J. Churchfield, S. Lee, and P. J. Moriarty https://github.com/NREL/SOWFA

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Short summary
The paper deals with the micrometeorological conditions on mountain glaciers. We use idealized large-eddy simulations to study the heat transport associated with the local wind systems and its impact on the energy exchange between atmosphere and glaciers. Our results demonstrate how the sensible heat flux variablility on glaciers is related to topographic effects and that the energy surplus is strong enough to significantly increase the local glacier melting rates.