| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this master thesis is to study the mass balance of Storbrean and Kringsollfonna for the balance year of 2015/2016. The ice patches are located in Oppdal municipality. Due to the fact that ice patches exists in an area where direct precipitation is insufficient and discoveries of archaeological objects have been made, the ice patches have been an interesting research object for both glaciologists and archaeologists. The formation of most ice patches occurred for about 5000 years ago and it is assumed that Storbrean and Kringsollfonna were also formed at that time, which makes them nival ice patches. The mass balance was obtained by performing in situ measurements using lidar scans and snow density measurements, as well as HBV modeling when scans were not completed due to weather challenges. For Storbrean, this applies to the summer balance and total balance, while Kringsollfonna have a simulated summer- and winter balance from the scanned total balance. The year 2015/2016 gave a positive mass balance for Storbrean, while Kringsollfonna had a negative mass balance where it most likely has melted a lot of ice and firn. The difference is due to the height difference where Storbrean is about 300 meters above Kringsollfonna. Both ice patches accumulated large amounts of snow during the winter season due to wind and turbulence, which means that wind-transported snow is crucial to the existence of ice patches.
Kringsollfonna had a larger melting value than Storbrean due to the height difference where Kringsollfonna had recorded a higher average air temperature. This may indicate that it is the sensible heat that dominates the melting season, because both short-wave and long-wave radiation give an elevated effect of the sensible heat. | nb_NO |
