Supraglacial debris thickness variability: impact on ablation and relation to terrain properties

Nicholson, Lindsey I.; McCarthy, Michael; Pritchard, Hamish D.; Willis, Ian

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3719-2018

Articles | Volume 12, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3719-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3719-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 12

Research article

|

29 Nov 2018

Research article |

| 29 Nov 2018

Supraglacial debris thickness variability: impact on ablation and relation to terrain properties

Lindsey I. Nicholson, Michael McCarthy, Hamish D. Pritchard, and Ian Willis

Data sets

Supraglacial debris thickness data from Ngozumpa Glacier, Nepal L. Nicholson and M. McCarthy https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1451560

Short summary

Ground-penetrating radar of supraglacial debris thickness is used to study local thickness variability. Freshly emergent debris cover appears to have higher skewness and kurtosis than more mature debris covers. Accounting for debris thickness variability in ablation models can result in markedly different ice ablation than is calculated using the mean debris thickness. Slope stability modelling reveals likely locations for locally thin debris with high ablation.