Measurements and modeling of snow albedo at Alerce Glacier, Argentina: effects of volcanic ash, snow grain size, and cloudiness

Gelman Constantin, Julián; Ruiz, Lucas; Villarosa, Gustavo; Outes, Valeria; Bajano, Facundo N.; He, Cenlin; Bajano, Hector; Dawidowski, Laura

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4581-2020

Articles | Volume 14, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4581-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4581-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 12

Research article

|

16 Dec 2020

Research article |

| 16 Dec 2020

Measurements and modeling of snow albedo at Alerce Glacier, Argentina: effects of volcanic ash, snow grain size, and cloudiness

Julián Gelman Constantin, Lucas Ruiz, Gustavo Villarosa, Valeria Outes, Facundo N. Bajano, Cenlin He, Hector Bajano, and Laura Dawidowski

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4581-2020-supplement

Data sets

EarthSciCode/SNICARv2: Release of SNICARv2.1 (Version v2.1) Cenlin He https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4319016

Short summary

We present the results of two field campaigns and modeling activities on the impact of atmospheric particles on Alerce Glacier (Argentinean Andes). We found that volcanic ash remains at different snow layers several years after eruption, increasing light absorption on the glacier surface (with a minor contribution of soot). This leads to 36 % higher annual glacier melting. We find remarkably that volcano eruptions in 2011 and 2015 have a relevant effect on the glacier even in 2016 and 2017.