Day 11 - Output!

Since the last major accomplishment of making the most basic model run and produce some output, there were some roadblocks and bugs in the model that have taken the last few days to iron out. I can also now run the model completely on my computer independent of Regine's computer which is nice.

The melt of the glacier is accounted for in the discharg so we had to get that component working for the model. The model reads measured discharge data and also produces simulated discharge data and then compares them with an r^2 value (measures how well the measured and simulated data matches up and therefore how well the model is working). I'm now at the point where I can begin to calibrate various aspects of the model and try to get my r^2 value as close to 1 as possible and make the discharge curves match. I have to run the model for all 40 years and see what happens (hopefully that works!) and I have to run the model number 2. Model number 2 takes into account solar radiation and topographic shading of the area. Right now I am running the simplest model that only looks at temperature/melt relationship and gives a degree day factor based on this relationship for ice and for snow.

This is an example of the discharge plots that I can now create in MATLAB.

Calibrating the model is interesting because different combinations of the different parameters will yeild the same result. It is important that I match discharge data as well as mass balance data that is simulated and measured. The more outputs I have to match, the number of different combinations of variables decreases and I will be more likely to find some realistic values for those variables.

Regine and Anthony seemed very happy with how well the model seemed to work already with just random and arbitrary values for the variables and the expect that the USGS will be very interested in what I found out. They also expressed interest in creating a little paper out of this project which could then be published! Cool!

I'm also still working in MATLAB and plotting the output from the model in MATLAB. It's been very convienent to learn how to use the model and MATLAB simultaneously. I'm now working on writing scripts that are general enough for anyone to be able to give the name of the data file and then produce a graph with a MATLAB script.

NEXT:
Keep working on MATLAB
Calibrate the model 1 or 2?
Start looking at Mass Balance Data