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Simulating glacier mass balance and its contribution to runoff in Northern Sweden

Mohammadi, Babak LU orcid ; Gao, Hongkai ; Feng, Zijing ; Pilesjö, Petter LU ; Cheraghalizadeh, Majid and Duan, Zheng LU (2023) In Journal of Hydrology 620(Part A).
Abstract

Glaciers are one of the main sources of freshwater in cold regions. The glacier melting process can significantly impact the glacier mass balance (GMB) and contribute a large amount of runoff in cold regions. This study applied the recently developed semi-distributed glacio-hydrological conceptual model (FLEXG) to understand the glacier melting process and the effect of topography on GMB in the Torne River basin, northern Sweden. The study simulated glacier and snow accumulation and ablation, as well as runoff from the glacier and non-glacier areas of the basin using the FLEXG model for the time period 1989–2018. The FLEXG model considers the influence of topography on runoff generation, and in this... (More)

Glaciers are one of the main sources of freshwater in cold regions. The glacier melting process can significantly impact the glacier mass balance (GMB) and contribute a large amount of runoff in cold regions. This study applied the recently developed semi-distributed glacio-hydrological conceptual model (FLEXG) to understand the glacier melting process and the effect of topography on GMB in the Torne River basin, northern Sweden. The study simulated glacier and snow accumulation and ablation, as well as runoff from the glacier and non-glacier areas of the basin using the FLEXG model for the time period 1989–2018. The FLEXG model considers the influence of topography on runoff generation, and in this study the basin was classified into 143 zones depending on elevation and aspect. In order to gain a comprehensive view of the performance of the FLEXG model, the classical lumped hydrological model HBV was used and compared with the FLEXG model in simulating total streamflow and peak runoff at the outlet of the basin. Our results revealed that the FLEXG model performed well in reproducing the streamflow (also better than the HBV model) with metric Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) of 0.80 and 0.71 for the calibration and validation periods, respectively. We also found that the FLEXG model performs better in peak runoff simulation than the HBV model. The FLEXG simulated snow cover area proportion agreed well with the MODIS satellite snow cover product (R2 = 0.60 and RMSE = 28%). The GMB in different elevation zones was simulated, and a downward trend was found for GMB changes during the study period because of climate change.

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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Arctic region, Catchment hydrology, Glacier hydrology, Hydrological model, Runoff simulation, Satellite data
in
Journal of Hydrology
volume
620
issue
Part A
article number
129404
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85151031287
ISSN
0022-1694
DOI
10.1016/j.jhydrol.2023.129404
project
Improving hydrological modelling in cold regions using satellite remote sensing and machine learning techniques
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Funding Information: This work was supported by the Crafoord Foundation (No. 20200595 and No. 20210552). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)
id
c1e3aaf9-ac72-4653-a520-8bf8cdbc478b
date added to LUP
2023-04-04 14:10:16
date last changed
2024-01-18 10:22:23
@article{c1e3aaf9-ac72-4653-a520-8bf8cdbc478b,
  abstract     = {{<p>Glaciers are one of the main sources of freshwater in cold regions. The glacier melting process can significantly impact the glacier mass balance (GMB) and contribute a large amount of runoff in cold regions. This study applied the recently developed semi-distributed glacio-hydrological conceptual model (FLEX<sup>G</sup>) to understand the glacier melting process and the effect of topography on GMB in the Torne River basin, northern Sweden. The study simulated glacier and snow accumulation and ablation, as well as runoff from the glacier and non-glacier areas of the basin using the FLEX<sup>G</sup> model for the time period 1989–2018. The FLEX<sup>G</sup> model considers the influence of topography on runoff generation, and in this study the basin was classified into 143 zones depending on elevation and aspect. In order to gain a comprehensive view of the performance of the FLEX<sup>G</sup> model, the classical lumped hydrological model HBV was used and compared with the FLEX<sup>G</sup> model in simulating total streamflow and peak runoff at the outlet of the basin. Our results revealed that the FLEX<sup>G</sup> model performed well in reproducing the streamflow (also better than the HBV model) with metric Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) of 0.80 and 0.71 for the calibration and validation periods, respectively. We also found that the FLEX<sup>G</sup> model performs better in peak runoff simulation than the HBV model. The FLEX<sup>G</sup> simulated snow cover area proportion agreed well with the MODIS satellite snow cover product (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.60 and RMSE = 28%). The GMB in different elevation zones was simulated, and a downward trend was found for GMB changes during the study period because of climate change.</p>}},
  author       = {{Mohammadi, Babak and Gao, Hongkai and Feng, Zijing and Pilesjö, Petter and Cheraghalizadeh, Majid and Duan, Zheng}},
  issn         = {{0022-1694}},
  keywords     = {{Arctic region; Catchment hydrology; Glacier hydrology; Hydrological model; Runoff simulation; Satellite data}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{Part A}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Hydrology}},
  title        = {{Simulating glacier mass balance and its contribution to runoff in Northern Sweden}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2023.129404}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jhydrol.2023.129404}},
  volume       = {{620}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}