Glacier melt (M) is produced by multiplying the melt factor
(MF) with the amount of energy available for melting which is
approximated with the difference between the measured temperature (T)
and a threshold temperature above which melt occurs (Tth).
The formula is given as: M = MF * (T - Tth) if T is above Tth.
No melt occurs at temperatures below the threshold temperature.
Source
Hock R. (2003): Temperature index melt modelling in mountain areas. Journal of Hydrology 282, pp 104--115, DOI: 10.1016/S0022-1694(03)00257-9.
Arguments
- temperature
A matrix with daily temperatures over time (rows) for each glacier and/or elevation band (columns).
- MF
is a scalar or a named vector with temperature index factors which contains one melt factor for each glacier/elevation band in the temperature matrix.
- threshold_temperature
is a scalar or a named vector with the temperature above which glacier melt is produced.
See also
Other Glacier functions:
ErazovsGlacierFunction(),
glacierAreaVolume_Aizen(),
glacierArea_Erasov(),
glacierArea_RGIF(),
glacierVolume_Erasov(),
glacierVolume_RGIF()
Examples
# Generate random temperature forcing
number_of_glaciers <- 10
number_of_days <- 50*365
temperature <- matrix(
runif(number_of_glaciers * number_of_days, min = -10, max = 10),
nrow = number_of_days, ncol = number_of_glaciers)
colnames(temperature) <- paste0("Gl", 1:number_of_glaciers)
# Generate sample melt factors
MF <- temperature[1, ] * 0 + 1:number_of_glaciers
# Calculate glacier melt assuming a threshold temperature for glacier melt of
# 1 degree Celcius.
melt <- glacierMelt_TI(temperature, MF, threshold_temperature = 1)