Observational Results of Evaporation from the Snow Cover Surface at the Research Base “Ice Station “Cape Baranova” (Severnaya Zemlya)

Abstract

The results of instrumental observations of sublimation from the snow cover surface on the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago in the vicinity of the Ice Base “Cape Baranov” are presented. The study used an instrumental method with two GG-500-6 weighing evaporimeters. Observations began on April 16, 2024, and continued until the snow cover disappeared. The coefficient of mutual correlation between the measurements of the two evaporimeters during the pre-spring period is 0.943. At temperaturesranging from −30 to −10 °C, sublimation does not exceed 0.01 mm/day, and its intensity varies between −0.0007 and 0.0005 mm/hour. It has been shown that during the pre-spring period, the average daily amount of sublimation is 0.01 mm/day. In May, the average rate of sublimation is 0.0088 mm/hour, and during snowmelt the daily amount of sublimation rises to 0.51 mm/day. During the snowmelt period, 4.14 mm of moisture was lost through sublimation. Over the pre-spring and spring periods, the amount of sublimation determined by instrumental means is 7.76 mm. Adverse natural factors lead to underestimation of the sublimated moisture. To restore missing observations, the authors applied linear interpolation between adjacent measured values and recovery of gaps using P.P. Kuzmin’s method. Recovery of missing instrumental observations using P.P. Kuzmin’s method determines the amount of sublimation at Cape Baranov as 19.2 mm of moisture, while linear interpolation yields a value of 12.4 mm.