Articles | Volume 18, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-17-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-17-2024
Research article
 | 
02 Jan 2024
Research article |  | 02 Jan 2024

Evaluation of reanalysis data and dynamical downscaling for surface energy balance modeling at mountain glaciers in western Canada

Christina Draeger, Valentina Radić, Rachel H. White, and Mekdes Ayalew Tessema

Data sets

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1959 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Model code and software

Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model WRF Community https://doi.org/10.5065/D6MK6B4K

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Short summary
Our study increases our confidence in using reanalysis data for reconstructions of past glacier melt and in using dynamical downscaling for long-term simulations from global climate models to project glacier melt. We find that the surface energy balance model, forced with reanalysis and dynamically downscaled reanalysis data, yields <10 % difference in the modeled total melt energy when compared to the same model being forced with observations at our glacier sites in western Canada.