Simulating Mass Balance and Dynamics of Mountain Glaciers within an Earth System Modeling Framework

Simulating mass changes and ice dynamics for mountain glaciers using Earth System Models (ESMs) is challenging due to their small size, sheer number, and spatial discontinuities in the ground ice coverage. This has resulted in a knowledge and representational gap in ESMs. However, there is a need for scaling ESMs from global to regional domains for comprehensive glacio-hydrological and hydroclimatic assessments.

We introduce new developments for simulating the mass balance and dynamic evolution of mountain glaciers within the Community Earth System Model (CESM). We provide an overview of this work across two spatiotemporal scales related to: (1) the dynamic evolution of the Central European glaciers under the GlacierMIP3 protocol using the Community Ice Sheet Model (CISM) and (2) the energy and water balance of the Upper Indus glaciated basins at daily-monthly timescales using the Hillslope Hydrology configuration of the Community Land Model (CLM).