Modelling of Meteorological Parameters for the Chorabari Glacier Valley, Central Himalaya, India

Abstract

In the present study, we have developed empirical relationships to estimate meteorological parameters at the glacier altitude from the data on non-glacier altitude. Meteorological data collected from automatic weather station at Chorabari Glacier from November 2011 to May 2013 are analysed and empirical equations for air temperature, relative humidity and incoming global radiation are proposed. The dataset of one year (November 2011-October 2012) is used in the calibration of models, while data for the next seven months (November 2012-May 2013) are employed to validate the models. Moreover, an analytical study is also conducted on incoming diffuse radiation (estimated through the established model for India). Further, a relationship is established to correlate the diffuse component of two sites. Variation trend of meteorological parameters with altitude is found to be different for each of the parameters, viz. quadratic for air temperature, logarithmic for relative humidity, and linear for global and diffuse radiation. Performance of the generated equations is tested through various statistical methods. The study reveals that developed correlations are able to give a good match with in situ measurements.