Modelling Temperature Distribution in Alpine Glaciers

Abstract

Modelling temperature distribution in non-temperate mountain glaciers presents problems not normally encountered when modelling ice sheets or ice shelves. These problems are mainly concerned with numerical instabilities caused by the high, nonuniform gradients of various input parameters (geometry, mass balance, surface temperature, and flow velocity). Steady-state solutions must be used to check and complete data sets, before using models of greater complexity to calculate temperature fields in a more realistic way. Test runs with a computer model, which allows for true two-dimensional solutions and realistic velocity fields, are described for two examples from the Swiss Alps. These steady-state calculations illustrate, in a semi-quantitative way, that advection of cold ice by glacier flow strongly influences the temperature distribution in both an existing large valley glacier with a cold accumulation zone (Grenzgletscher), and a large piedmont glacier of the last ice age, around 18 ka BP (Rheingletscher). Non-steady-state models are being prepared and tested for future calculations.