Spectral attenuation coefficients from measurements of light transmission in bare ice on the Greenland Ice Sheet

Cooper, Matthew G.; Smith, Laurence C.; Rennermalm, Asa K.; Tedesco, Marco; Muthyala, Rohi; Leidman, Sasha Z.; Moustafa, Samiah E.; Fayne, Jessica V.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1931-2021

Articles | Volume 15, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1931-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1931-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 4

Research article

|

21 Apr 2021

Research article |

| 21 Apr 2021

Spectral attenuation coefficients from measurements of light transmission in bare ice on the Greenland Ice Sheet

Matthew G. Cooper, Laurence C. Smith, Asa K. Rennermalm, Marco Tedesco, Rohi Muthyala, Sasha Z. Leidman, Samiah E. Moustafa, and Jessica V. Fayne

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1931-2021-supplement

Data sets

Optical attenuation coefficients of glacier ice from 350-700 nm (West Greenland) M. G. Cooper, L. C. Smith, A. K. Rennermalm, M. Tedesco, R. Muthyala, S. Z. Leidman, S. E. Moustafa, and J. V. Fayne https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.913508

Model code and software

Ice Monte Carlo Radiative Transfer Model M. G. Cooper https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4579073

Short summary

We measured sunlight transmitted into glacier ice to improve models of glacier ice melt and satellite measurements of glacier ice surfaces. We found that very small concentrations of impurities inside the ice increase absorption of sunlight, but the amount was small enough to enable an estimate of ice absorptivity. We confirmed earlier results that the absorption minimum is near 390 nm. We also found that a layer of highly reflective granular "white ice" near the surface reduces transmittance.