Energy balance in the ablation zone during the summer season at the Gran Campo Nevado Ice Cap in the Southern Andes

The energy balance and ablation of Glaciar Lengua were investigated during the austral summer of 1999/2000. Glaciar Lengua is located in Patagonia, in the southernmost Andes of Chile (53°S), within an extremely maritime climate. The aim of this study was to gain insight into current energy fluxes at this location and to evaluate how the energy fluxes depend on meteorological variables. From February to April 2000 an automated weather station was operated on Glaciar Lengua. Ablation was measured repeatedly at stakes during the same period. The point energy balance was calculated using the bulk approach formulation. The effective roughness length was adjusted in order to calibrate the model to the measured ablation. It was revealed that sensible heat transfer is the major contribution to the energy balance adding 54% of the energy available for melt. Net radiation contributes only 35% to the overall energy balance. Minor contributors are the latent heat flux (7%) and the heat flux by precipitation (4%). The net radiation shows little variance from day to day. Cross-correlations of the daily mean values of the energy fluxes derived from the energy balance model and meteorological variables reveal that air temperature and wind speed are the key factors controlling the summer energy balance in the ablation area. Melt derived from a multiple regression model based on these two variables correlates with computed melt with a correlation coefficient of 0.92. From the measured ablation, a summer-time degree-day factor of 7.6 mm·°C− 1 was derived for the ablation area.