Measuring sublimation in a high-altitude glacierised catchment of the dry Andes
Eidgenössische Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft - WSL
Lay summary
The dry Andes are one of the most vulnerable mountain regions of the world to water stress as a result of climatic change. Here, glaciers and snow are a vital water resource, storing precipitation during the wet season and releasing it to buffer river flows when most needed by local people during the dry season and droughts. Using glacio-hydrological models, we can simulate how glaciers, snow and river flows change in response to changes in climate. However, a process that is often not represented in these models, largely due to a lack of observations, is sublimation - the process by which ice turns directly into vapour without passing through a liquid phase. This omission can have important consequences. Calibrating a glacio-hydrological model that does not account for sublimation to measurements of snow or glacier change that have been made where sublimation has occurred may cause simulated river flows to be overestimated and therefore unreliable. This project will make detailed measurements of sublimation on the Tapado glacier complex in the Norte Chico region of northern Chile, using both traditional methods and new, low-cost systems. In doing so, it will facilitate improved simulation of sublimation, and therefore snow and glacier change and downstream hydrology, in a state-of-the-art glacio-hydrological model.
Details
| Regional focus | High-altitude |
| Location | Tapado glacier complex, Coquimbo region, Norte Chico, Chile |
| Funded amount | 7,600 CHF |
| Project dates | 1st June 2020 – 30th November 2022 |
| Category | Polar Access Fund |