A 3-hourly quasi-logarithmic local index of geomagnetic activity relative to an assumed quiet-day curve for the recording site. Range is from 0 (quiet) to 9 (severely disturbed). The K index measures
the deviation of the most disturbed component (see geomagnetic elements). Also see Kp.
A method of determining the spatial distribution of the mass balance by solving the equation of the kinematic boundary condition at the surface for the ice-equivalent mass-balance rate bb as a functio
n of the rate of change hh of the ice-equivalent thickness, the spatial gradient of the thickness h (usually approximated by the inclination of the surface), and the velocity at the surface uub hu b hu huhh V hu Vhuh hhhhu h H , where subscripts H and V denote horizontal and vertical vector components respectively of uu. It is assumed that the basal ice velocity is zero, for example because the ice is frozen to the bed.
Any method of determining the mass balance that involves measurement or calculation of glacier flow, including the flux-divergence method, the kinematic-equation method and methods in which the mass b
alance is determined as the sum of the discharge through a cross section and the surface mass balance of the region upglacier from the cross section. Information about density is needed to convert the volumetric fluxes obtained by kinematic methods to mass fluxes.
Refers to a wave of ice moving downglacier propagated by its increased thickness. The wave of ice may move at two to six times the velocity of surrounding thinner ice.