Data Exploration
Fresh snow may absorb three times less solar radiation than wet snow. That generally is located in the margins of glacier (ablation zone) which would be warmer than accumulation area (core of icefield) due to absorbing shortwave radiation. The summertime energy balance in the glacier ablation zone is positive that accelerates glacier melting. Statistic linear plot of surface albedo in the core and margins of Columbia icefield illustrated in this section as a primarily analysis of energy balance variables in time series (Figure 5). The amount of surface albedo in margins of icefield (wet snow) is less than core (difference between margin and core albedo = 0.090, 0.11 and 0.19 in Jun, July and August respectively). Also, the amount of surface temperature in margins are higher than core (difference between margin and core temperature = 0.17, 0.6 and 0.4 in Jun, July and August respectively) in time series.
Fresh snow may absorb three times less solar radiation than wet snow. That generally is located in the margins of glacier (ablation zone) which would be warmer than accumulation area (core of icefield) due to absorbing shortwave radiation. The summertime energy balance in the glacier ablation zone is positive that accelerates glacier melting. Statistic linear plot of surface albedo in the core and margins of Columbia icefield illustrated in this section as a primarily analysis of energy balance variables in time series (Figure 5). The amount of surface albedo in margins of icefield (wet snow) is less than core (difference between margin and core albedo = 0.090, 0.11 and 0.19 in Jun, July and August respectively). Also, the amount of surface temperature in margins are higher than core (difference between margin and core temperature = 0.17, 0.6 and 0.4 in Jun, July and August respectively) in time series.
For the 17-year period of this study, the slope of albedo linear regression for core and margins of icefield equates to -0.009 and -0.001 decrease in the mean Jun, 0.004 and -0.008 in the mean of July and -0.01 and -0.002 decrease in the mean of August. The slope of temperature linear regression for core and margins of icefield shows +0.11ºC and +0.05 ºC increase, -0.03 ºC decrease and+0.01 ºC increase in the mean of July And -0.03 ºC and -0.01 ºC decrease, for the mean Jun, July and August respectively.
Spatial albedo anomaly can be used to find where the surface albedo is reduced in time series. According to spatial albedo map, the margins of icefield face negative anomaly (decrease albedo) and 2016 summertime (-0.14 in Jun,-0.12 in July and -0.13 in August) was the highest negative anomaly in time series (Figure6).
Linear correlation between surface albedo and surface temperature ran to compare linera relationship between variables. I hypothesize that the margins of icefield absorb the large part of short wave radiation in comparison to core due to increase temperature and accelerate in melting while, the core of icefield that located in accumulation zone had strong downhill negative linear relationship between albedo decrease and increase temperature in summer time (r=-0.68) (Figure 7).
The hot and dry weather will contribute the risk of wildfires especially in Jun, July and August. Soot climate forcing modelling indicates that soot is twice as CO2 in reducing surface albedo [Hansen and Nazarenko, 2004]. The principal database of wildfire in combination with airflow was affected by 163 Wildfire (Canada wildfire) between 2000 and 2016. The airflow came from back trajectory analyses determines that Columbia ice field. The cross section between affected wildfire to Columbia icefield and albedo linear plot shows some anomalies (decrease) in albedo rate after wildfire (Figures 8 & 9).
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