Cryosphère

NOTOC La cryosphère, du grec kryos (froid, glace), est un terme désignant toutes les portions de la surface des mers ou terres émergées où l'eau est présente à l'état solide. Pour le Rapport spécial « The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate » publié par le GIEC en 2019, la cryosphère inclut les volumes de neige, les glaciers, les inlandsis, les banquises, les icebergs, la glace de mer, de lac et de rivière, et de façon temporaire ou permanente les sols gelés (pergélisol/permafrosts, selon les saisons). thumb|upright=4|Carte de la cryosphère et de l'océan mondial Localisation On peut trouver de la glace et de la neige sous toute latitude (avec par exemple, les montagnes gelées de Norvège, les glaciers de Suisse (en fonte accélérée pour certains), les neiges du Kilimandjaro), mais l'essentiel du volume de glace se trouve dans les deux gros inlandsis du Groenland et de l'immense Antarctique. (Voir aussi la carte ci-contre). Étud

Upscaling the evolution of snow microstructure

Quirien Eibhilín Krol

Snow microstructure and its evolution play an important role for various applications of snow physics in cryospheric sciences. The main modes of microstructure evolution in snow are referred to as isothermal and temperature gradient metamorphism. The former describes the coarsening driven by interfacial energy while the latter is dominated by recrystallization processes induced by temperature gradients. An accurate description of these processes in snowpack models is of key importance. However common snowpack models are still based on traditional grain metrics, originally tailored to field observations, and empirical evolution laws. This treatment of snow microstructure is essentially unrelated to recent advances of snow observations by microcomputed tomography (ÎŒCT). The present thesis contributes to the solution of this problem by i) identifying suitable microstructure parameters ii) deriving evolution equations for these from first principles and iii) developing methods that allow to utilize 4D ÎŒCT measurements of snow as a link between local ice crystal growth and upscaled microstructure as relevant on the scales of interest for common snowpack models. To this end, three studies have been conducted. The first study focuses on estimating local ice-crystal growth rates from interface tracking by analyzing 4D ÎŒCT data of in-situ snow metamorphism experiments under isothermal and temperature gradient conditions. For temperature gradient metamorphism diffusion-limited growth is considered, while for isothermal metamorphism the data is compared to kinetics and diffusion limited growth. Despite considerable scatter, in both cases the significance of underlying growth laws could be statistically confirmed. The second study uses ÎŒCT images from a variety of snow samples to investigate the role of grain shape in the context of microwave and optical properties of snow. Grain shape can be objectively defined via size-dispersity of structure from the second moment of either the mean curvature distribution or the chord-length distribution. In addition, a quantitative link between these quantities and the exponential correlation length is shown. The latter is relevant for parameterizing macroscopic properties such as microwave scattering coefficients, dielectric permittivity and thermal conductivity. Finally, a rigorous, upscaled microstructure scheme is developed by deriving mathematically exact evolution equations for the density, specific surface area, the mean and Gaussian curvature and the second moment of mean curvature. The microstructural evolution is driven by local ice crystal growth. All parameters are upscaled by volume averaging and the correctness of the model is confirmed for the time evolution of idealized grains. The model can be compared to 4D ÎŒCT data without any a-priori assumptions. This benchmarking reveals the uncertainties of the interface tracking method which are largely caused by limited temporal and spatial resolution. The model allows to statistically assess the validity of ice crystal growth laws during snow metamorphism. For a temperature gradient experiment it is shown that a diffusion limited growth law is not consistent with the observed decay of the specific surface area. The developed model is a powerful and rigorous tool that is tailored to 4D ÎŒCT data. It connects microscale ice-crystal growth thermodynamics with the macroscale snowpack modeling.

EPFL2017

Black carbon and dust in the Third Pole glaciers: revaluated concentrations, mass absorption cross-sections and contributions to glacier ablation

Yang Li, Xinyang Li, Julia Schmale, Wei Yang

In snow and ice, light-absorbing particles (LAPs), such as black carbon (BC) and dust, accelerate the melting of Third Pole glaciers (TPGs). In this study, we revaluated LAP concentrations in the snow pits of TPGs (SP-TPGs), measured LAP mass absorption cross-sections (MACs), and simulated their effects on glacier darkening and melting based on the Spectral Albedo Model for Dirty Snow and a surface energy and mass balance model. The results indicated that because of their short distances to emission sources, the average BC concentrations measured in snow pits in the periphery of Third Pole were much higher than those measured in the inland Tibetan Plateau, and the average dust concentrations generally decreased from north to south. The average MACs of BC in the SP-TPGs varied from 3.1 to 7.7 m2 g−1 at 550 nm, most of the average spectral values were comparable in the visible and near-infrared bands to those calculated by Mie theory, except those in Urumqi Glacier No. 1 (UR), Syek Zapadniy Glacier (SZ), and Laohugou Glacier No.12 (LH), while the average spectral MACs of dust in the SP-TPGs were considerably smaller in magnitude than most of the variations measured in other regions. Compared with the pure snow surfaces, BC and dust played comparable roles in reducing albedo in UR, SZ, LH, and Renlongba Glacier, whereas BC was the most prominent absorber in the other glaciers. The combined effect of BC and dust accelerated melting by 30.4–345.9 mm w.e. (19.7–45.3% of the total mass balance) through surface albedo darkening (0.06–0.17) and increased radiation absorption (25.8–65.7 W m−2) within one month of the ablation season. This study provides a new data set of LAP concentrations and MACs and helps to clarify the roles of these factors in the cryospheric environment of the Third Pole.

2021

Black carbon and dust in the Third Pole glaciers: revaluated concentrations, mass absorption cross-sections and contributions to glacier ablation

Yang Li, Xinyang Li, Julia Schmale, Wei Yang

2021

Upscaling the evolution of snow microstructure

Quirien Eibhilín Krol

EPFL2017

Upscaling the evolution of snow microstructure

Editorial: About the Relevance of Snow Microstructure Study in Cryospheric Sciences

Black carbon and dust in the Third Pole glaciers: revaluated concentrations, mass absorption cross-sections and contributions to glacier ablation

Black carbon and dust in the Third Pole glaciers: revaluated concentrations, mass absorption cross-sections and contributions to glacier ablation

Upscaling the evolution of snow microstructure

Editorial: About the Relevance of Snow Microstructure Study in Cryospheric Sciences