Alpine WAter Resources: monitoring and modeling through continuous Simulation of ice and snow cover mass balance–AWAS
This project aims to improve the detailed understanding of the processes of snow accumulation and ablation on Alpine environments, as well as their climatic sensitivity. The main task is assessing water resources in snow covered and glaciated basins through continuous modelling of distributed snow and ice mass balance. The research site is the Haut Glacier D’Arolla in southwestern Switzerland. The intention is to use a highly instrumented site in the Alps for testing and implementation of process based mass and energy balance models, which could be applied in other mountain regions of the world.
This goal requires a detailed investigation on topographical influence on accumulation – ablation processes, accounting for the complexity of radiative and turbulent fluxes between the snowpack and the environment. Further parameters which need to be considered are albedo, surface roughness, seasonal snow cover evolution, surface temperatures and physical snow properties. The specific task of this research is the development of an accumulation model considering the spacial variability of precipitation and redistribution due to wind.
The establishment of a continuous mass balance model of a glacierized catchment and the seasonal evolution of the supraglacial snowpack hydrology will allow more accurate modelling of glacier dynamics, where water flow through the system plays a critical role. It will also improve future investigations concerning the impact on water resources availability due to future climate scenarios.
