THESIS APPROVAL

Within the polar desert of Taylor Valley, Antarctica, water is essential to promote the stability of the local ecosystem. Due to the arid conditions, the primary source of water within Taylor Valley is generated from the melting of alpine glaciers. I adapted an energy balance model to predict daily melt-water production. The model uses measured meteorological variables including air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and short-wave radiation to estimate the surface heat balance of the glacier and ablation (sublimation and melting) of its surface. I adapted the model to include an estimation of snowfall from meteorological values of relative humidity, albedo, wind speed, and incoming short-wave radiation. The model was calibrated against a single site on Taylor Glacier and applied to the entire ablation zone of Canada Glacier. Results show that the model predicts total surface ablation over a period of 7 years for Taylor Glacier within 5 % and ice temperatures at 20 cm and 100 cm depth over on