Quantifying the influence of mining dust particle deposition on the melting rate of nearby glaciers in northwestern China

Abstract. In addition to causing severe damage to human health and mechanical equipment, mineral dust particles (MDPs) also affect the rate at which glaciers melt. Although the acceleration of glacier melting by MDPs has attracted attention, there is limited understanding of the main controlling variables affected by MDPs that change the melting rate, and the mathematical relationships between each variable and the rate of melting remain to be fully elucidated. To address this problem, we first reconstructed the ablation environment to simulate changes in the rate of glacier melting under the influence of MDPs. The environment was analyzed through both physical and numerical experiments, and the response of glacier melting to multiple particles and individual particles on both macroscopic and microscopic levels was examined. Subsequently, based on thermodynamic laws, we theoretically derived a formula to calculate the increase in the rate of glacier melting attributable to MDPs. Through mutual validation of experiments and theory, we found that MDP coverage on the glacier surface increases the energy absorbed by the glacier, thereby resulting in an increased rate of melting, with an uplift of 10 %–40 %. The increase in the rate of melting is controlled primarily by four variables: particle number, particle diameter, irradiance, and particle surface albedo. Particle number, irradiance, and particle surface albedo each exhibit a linear relationship with the rate of increase in meltwater production, whereas particle diameter shows an exponential (quadratic) relationship. Our findings elucidate the mathematical relationship between MDPs and the rate of glacier melting, thereby providing scientific reference for glacier protection and accurate prediction of glacier melting rate.