Two temperature-based parameterizations which have been used in the past to estimate the runoff from snow and ice covered surfaces are briefly presented. The results obtained with these simple models will be contrasted with those derived with a more complicated, physically based, approach.
The three models are solved on both 40 km and 20 km grids over the Greenland ice sheet and a 40 km grid over Antarctica. This high resolution is required in order to obtain realistic estimates of ablation, Glover (1999) argues that this is due to a more accurate representation of the topography of the ice sheets and in particular of the steeply sloping coastal regions.