Streamflow simulation using WRF-Hydro/Glacier in the NEF River basin from the Northern Patagonian Ice cap

The susceptibility of glaciers to rainfall and thermal regime disturbances makes them one of the most sensitive systems to climatic variations. Glaciers are essential as they are strategic water reservoirs, are associated with natural risks, constitute economic resources, and increased sea levels. In Chilean Patagonia, the temperature increases are mainly driving glaciers to recede in size and mass. However, knowing at a glacier scale the impacts of climate change is not a trivial task. In particular, in mountain glaciers where local responses to climate may differ from the regional averages. This study proposes implementing a WRF-Hydro/Glacier model to estimate high-resolution streamflow in the NEF river basin. This basin begins in the Northern Patagonian Icecap; it also contains mountain glaciers usually ignored in mass balance studies in this region. We propose to study these areas by combining multiple-scale observations derived from remote sensing, streamflow gauges, and numerical modeling. We use the outputs generated by the South American Affinity Group (SAAG) that used the WRF model to dynamically downscale ERA5 reanalysis data for the entire South America at a resolution of 3 km. The forcing is spatially and temporally compared and bias-corrected with satellite precipitation and local weather stations (WS). We aim to used WRF-Hydro/Glacier to create the capability to study the local impact of climate change over glacierized environments in Chilean Patagonia and the changes in streamflow.