Energy balance on outlet glaciers from the Inland Ice, West Greenland

Abstract

As part of the GGU programme of hydropower investigations in West Greenland, energy balance measurements were made on Qamanârssûp serrnia during the 1986 ablation season. The investigations are the continuation of a project in which Aarhus University has measured energy balances on Nordbogletscher, Johan Dahl Land, in 1981 and 1982 and on Qamanârssûp serrnia in 1984 in coIlaboration with P. Clement and R. J. Braithwaite, respectively (fig. 1). The main point of the programme was direct calculation of the ablation at the glacier surface from observations in the atmospheric boundary layer. Measured ablation was also used to calculate the residual part of the energy balance, as all elements were not determined. Lastly, the ablation was evaluated using variables chosen by correlation between easily measured climatic elements and the energy balance. The measurements in Johan Dahl Land were made by Jens Peter Jensen and Ole Ottosen as part of a student thesis project. Ole Bendixen undertook field measurements in 1984 on Qamanârssûp serrnia while Ole Ottosen and Lars Moeslund Svendsen carried out the field work in 1986.