Surface ablation and its drivers along a west–east transect of the Southern Patagonia Icefield

Abstract Glaciers in the Southern Patagonia Icefield (SPI) have been shrinking recent decades, but due to a lack of field observations, understanding drivers ablation is limited. We present distributed surface energy balance model, forced with meteorological observations from west–east transect located north SPI. Between October 2015 and June 2016, humid warm on-glacier conditions prevailed on western side compared dry cold eastern side. Controls differ along transect, although at glacier-wide scale sensible heat (mean 72 W m −2 west 51 east) net shortwave radiation 54 52 provided main sources. Net longwave was an sink, while latent most spatially variable flux, being sink east (−4 ) source (20 ). Ablation high, comparable elevations, it greater west. These results provide new insights into spatial variability energy-balance fluxes their control over Patagonian glaciers.