A Scaling Relation for Cryoconite Holes

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Abstract

Tiny cryoconite holes are commonly found on glacier surfaces. Despite a long history of research on them, their influence on glacier-scale mass balance and runoff are not well understood. We model the absorption of solar radiation at the bottom of cylindrical cryoconite holes, incorporating the three-dimensional geometry. The simulated holes achieve a limiting steady-state depth, where the daily melt rate at the bottom of the holes matches that at the glacier surface. This implies a feedback loop restricting the excess ice melt due to the presence of dark supraglacial impurities. The modeled steady-state depth scales approximately linearly with the radius, consistent with in situ observations at several glaciers across the world. Given the areal coverage and radius distribution of cryoconite holes on a glacier, this scaling yields first-order estimates of their melt contribution.

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Banerjee, A., Sarangi, C., Rashid, I., Vijay, S., Najar, N. A., & Chandel, A. S. (2023). A Scaling Relation for Cryoconite Holes. Geophysical Research Letters, 50(22). https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104942

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