Abstract
As supraglacial debris is widely spread in many high-relief mountain regions and affects melting rate and resulting runoff, the effects of debris should be taken into account in glacier models on a global scale or continental scale to estimate effects of glacier melting on global water resources and sea level rise. However, insufficient measurements of debris information makes it difficult. In this study, we incorpolated the debris effect in a global glacier model by estimating distribution of debris thermal resistance on glaciers from a multi-temporal remotely sensed data. Our prelimilary results over the Central Europe showed that supraglacial debris covers 28% of the entire target glaciers. Furthermore, we investigated debris effect on glacier melting at Gries glacier in Swiss Alps and showed that we may underestimate mass balance about 28% without considering debris cover on ice.
