On the representation of precipitation phase and its impact on glacier changes 
in HMA catchments

Jouberton, Achille; Shaw, Thomas E.; Fugger, Stefan; Miles, Evan S.; Buri, Pascal; McCarthy, Michael; Sato, Yota; Hashimoto, Akihiro; Niwano, Masashi; Fujita, Koji; Pellicciotti, Francesca

doi:10.57757/IUGG23-3579

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On the representation of precipitation phase and its impact on glacier changes in HMA catchments

Authors

Jouberton, Achille
IUGG 2023, General Assemblies, 1 General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), External Organizations;

Shaw, Thomas E.
IUGG 2023, General Assemblies, 1 General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), External Organizations;

Fugger, Stefan
IUGG 2023, General Assemblies, 1 General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), External Organizations;

Miles, Evan S.
IUGG 2023, General Assemblies, 1 General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), External Organizations;

Buri, Pascal
IUGG 2023, General Assemblies, 1 General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), External Organizations;

McCarthy, Michael
IUGG 2023, General Assemblies, 1 General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), External Organizations;

Sato, Yota
IUGG 2023, General Assemblies, 1 General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), External Organizations;

Hashimoto, Akihiro
IUGG 2023, General Assemblies, 1 General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), External Organizations;

Niwano, Masashi
IUGG 2023, General Assemblies, 1 General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), External Organizations;

Fujita, Koji
IUGG 2023, General Assemblies, 1 General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), External Organizations;

Pellicciotti, Francesca
IUGG 2023, General Assemblies, 1 General, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), External Organizations;

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Citation

Jouberton, A., Shaw, T. E., Fugger, S., Miles, E. S., Buri, P., McCarthy, M., Sato, Y., Hashimoto, A., Niwano, M., Fujita, K., Pellicciotti, F. (2023): On the representation of precipitation phase and its impact on glacier changes in HMA catchments, XXVIII General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) (Berlin 2023).
https://doi.org/10.57757/IUGG23-3579

Cite as: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5020414

Abstract

High Mountain Asia (HMA) hosts the largest mass of ice outside the Polar Regions and provides water to large downstream communities. Glacier change has been highly diverse across the region over the last decades, with glaciers in the Pamirs experiencing near-neutral mass balance while fast rates of mass loss are observed in the Southeastern Tibetan Plateau (STP). In a previous modelling study in the STP, we found that precipitation phase changes associated with climate warming were a major accelerator of glacier losses, but this mechanism of mass loss acceleration has yet to be explored across the rest of HMA. High-elevation measurements of precipitation phase are rare, especially along glacierized elevations, which lie at the solid-mixed-liquid boundary during summer months. Therefore, accurate representation of precipitation phase in models is essential for quantifying glacier accumulation rates and projecting change.Here we use downscaled and bias-corrected ERA5-Land reanalysis to show the high sensitivity of the solid precipitation ratio to the choice of parameterisation and its impacts on the seasonality of simulated snowfall accumulation at three glacierized catchments covering distinctive climates in HMA (Kyzylsu in the Northern Pamirs, Trakarding-Trambau in the Nepalese Himalayas and Parlung No.4 in the STP). We then apply a land-surface model at high spatio-temporal resolution (100m, hourly) to show the effect of the precipitation phase parametrization on the simulated glacier-mass balance, snowpack dynamics and catchment hydrology. Our results highlight the need to better constrain precipitation phase in glaciological studies and to consider the uncertainty associated with the choice of parameterisation.