TCD The Cryosphere Discussions TCD The Cryosphere Discuss. 1994-0440 Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/tc-2022-179 Comprehensive evaluation of black carbon effect on glacier melting on the Laohugou Glacier No. 12, Western Qilian Mountains Chen Jizu 1 Du Wentao 1 Kang Shichang 1 4 Qin Xiang 1 Sun Weijun 2 Li Yang 5 Liu Yushuo 1 Luo Lihui https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9471-7373 6 Jiang Youyan 3 Qilian Shan Station of Glaciology and Eco-environment, State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou 730000, China College of Geography and Environment, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China Lanzhou regional climate center, Lanzhou 730020, China College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), Beijing 100049, China Institute of International Rivers and Eco-security, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650500, China Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Lanzhou 730000, China 30 09 2022 2022 1 25 Copyright: © 2022 Jizu Chen et al. 2022 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is available from https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2022-179/ The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2022-179/tc-2022-179.pdf

<p>Global warming and surface albedo reduction by black carbon (BC) in glacier jointly accelerated glacier melting, but their respective contributions remain unclear. This study developed a dynamic deposition model of light absorbing particles (LAPs), which coupled with a surface energy and mass balance model. Based on the coupled model, we further assessed atmospheric deposited BC effect on glacier melting for a period of September 2011&ndash;August 2012 on the Laohugou glacier No. 12 in the western Qilian Mountains. It was found that BC in glacier surface caused 13.1 % of annual glacier-wide melting, of which atmospheric direct deposited BC reduced albedo with 0.02 and accounted for 9.1 % of glacier melting. The air temperature during recent two decades has increased by 1.5 ℃ relative to that during 1950s, which accounted for 51.9 % of current glacier melt. Meanwhile, based on the BC emission increased by 4.6 times compared to the early Industrial Evolution recorded in an ice core, the increased BC accounted conservatively for 6.7 % of current glacier melting. Despite the importance of LAPs regarding glacier melting, their variation on the ice surface remains unclear, and relevant observations are urgently needed to improve simulation of the process.</p>