The use of bulk and profile methods for determining surface heat fluxes in the presence of glacier winds

Abstract

A one-dimensional second-order closure model and in situ observations on a melting glacier surface are used to investigate the suitability of bulk and profile methods for determining turbulent fluxes in the presence of the katabatic wind-speed maximum associated with glacier winds. The results show that profile methods severely underestimate turbulent fluxes when a wind-speed maximum is present. The bulk method, on the other hand, only slightly overestimates the turbulent heat flux in the entire region below the wind-speed maximum and is thus much more appropriate for use on sloping glacier surfaces where katabatic winds dominate and wind-speed maxima are just a few meters above the surface.