Characteristics of the western United States snowpack from snowpack telemetry (SNOTEL) data

Serreze, Mark C.; Clark, Martyn P.; Armstrong, R. L.; McGinnis, David A.; Pulwarty, Roger S.

doi:10.1029/1999wr900090

Cited by 566 publications

(579 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Station based data sets do not provide adequate spatial coverage to directly estimate continental scale fluctuations, although they have been used in studies over large regions [e.g., Kripalani and Kulkarni, 1999;Onuchin and Burenina, 1996;Ye, 2000;Ye and Bao, 2001;Serreze et al, 1999;Ye, 2001]. The other primary disadvantage to station observations is that typically only snow depth, not snow water equivalent (SWE), is recorded.…”

Section: Sca and Swe Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved simulations of snow extent in the second phase of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP‐2)

2003

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[1] Simulations of snow-covered area (SCA) over Northern Hemisphere lands by a suite of general circulation models (GCMs) are evaluated. Results from GCM experiments submitted by an international array of research groups participating in the second phase of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP-2) are compared to a data set derived primarily from visible band satellite imagery provided by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. At continental to hemispheric scales we find improvements over AMIP-1 models, including the elimination of temporal and spatial biases in simulations of the seasonal cycle of SCA, as well as improved simulations of the magnitude of interannual variability. At regional spatial scales, while no consistent model biases are identified over North America, regions over Eurasia are identified where models consistently either underestimate or overestimate SCA at the southern boundary of the seasonal snowpack. The region of greatest model bias is eastern Asia. While SCA biases are associated with temperature and precipitation biases, over only one region do we find a relationship between the magnitudes of SCA biases and the magnitudes of temperature and/or precipitation biases.

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Section: Sca and Swe Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved simulations of snow extent in the second phase of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP‐2)

2003

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“…Most primary water resources in the inland western US come from the Rocky Mountain snowpack (Serreze et al, 1999). Therefore, to develop a water resource management strategy, it is necessary to have information on snow accumulation and snowmelt timing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of absorbing aerosol deposition on snowpack and hydrologic cycle in the Rocky Mountain region based on variable-resolution CESM (VR-CESM) simulations

Liu

Lin

et al. 2018

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. The deposition of light-absorbing aerosols (LAAs), such as black carbon (BC) and dust, onto snow cover has been suggested to reduce the snow albedo and modulate the snowpack and consequent hydrologic cycle. In this study we use the variable-resolution Community Earth System Model (VR-CESM) with a regionally refined highresolution (0.125 • ) grid to quantify the impacts of LAAs in snow in the Rocky Mountain region during the period 1981-2005. We first evaluate the model simulation of LAA concentrations both near the surface and in snow and then investigate the snowpack and runoff changes induced by LAAs in snow. The model simulates similar magnitudes of near-surface atmospheric dust concentrations as observations in the Rocky Mountain region. Although the model underestimates near-surface atmospheric BC concentrations, the model overestimates BC-in-snow concentrations by 35 % on average. The regional mean surface radiative effect (SRE) due to LAAs in snow reaches up to 0.6-1.7 W m −2 in spring, and dust contributes to about 21-42 % of total SRE. Due to positive snow albedo feedbacks induced by the LAA SRE, snow water equivalent is reduced by 2-50 mm and snow cover fraction by 5-20 % in the two regions around the mountains (eastern Snake River Plain and southwestern Wyoming), corresponding to an increase in surface air temperature by 0.9-1.1 • C. During the snow melting period, LAAs accelerate the hydrologic cycle with monthly runoff increases of 0.15-1.00 mm day −1 in April-May and reductions of 0.04-0.18 mm day −1 in June-July in the mountainous regions. Of all the mountainous regions, the Southern Rockies experience the largest reduction of total runoff by 15 % during the later stage of snowmelt (i.e., June and July). Compared to previous studies based on field observations, our estimation of dust-induced SRE is generally 1 order of magnitude smaller in the Southern Rockies, which is ascribed to the omission of larger dust particles (with the diameter > 10 µm) in the model. This calls for the inclusion of larger dust particles in the model to reduce the discrepancies. Overall these results highlight the potentially important role of LAA interactions with snowpack and the subsequent impacts on the hydrologic cycles across the Rocky Mountains.

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“…The Sierra Nevada region was selected for this analysis given the relatively uniform orientation of the mountain front to prevailing storms and well organized ecotones arranged across elevational gradients 16 . Most of the annual precipitation at high elevations in the region falls in the form of snow during winter and spring 17 , with little contributions from summer rainfall, and therefore the ecosystem relies heavily on water availability from snowmelt.…”

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confidence: 99%

Elevation-dependent influence of snow accumulation on forest greening

et al. 2012

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Rising temperatures and declining water availability have influenced the ecological function of mountain forests over the past half-century. For instance, warming in spring and summer and shifts towards earlier snowmelt are associated with an increase in wildfire activity and tree mortality in mountain forests in the western United States 1,2 . Temperature increases are expected to continue during the twenty-first century in mountain ecosystems across the globe 3,4 , with uncertain consequences. Here, we examine the influence of interannual variations in snowpack accumulation on forest greenness in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, between 1982 and 2006. Using observational records of snow accumulation and satellite data on vegetation greenness we show that vegetation greenness increases with snow accumulation. Indeed, we show that variations in maximum snow accumulation explain over 50% of the interannual variability in peak forest greenness across the Sierra Nevada region. The extent to which snow accumulation can explain variations in greenness varies with elevation, reaching a maximum in the water-limited midelevations, between 2,000 and 2,600 m. In situ measurements of carbon uptake and snow accumulation along an elevational transect in the region confirm the elevation dependence of this relationship. We suggest that mid-elevation mountain forest ecosystems could prove particularly sensitive to future increases in temperature and concurrent changes in snow accumulation and melt.Recent studies have documented a shift from energy to water limitation across forested ecosystems of western North America 5,6 . This transformation has reversed the response of these ecosystems to increases in temperature where before the early 1990s increases in air temperature increased terrestrial carbon uptake. Following the early 1990s an apparent shift from energy to water limitation resulted in reduced carbon uptake with increased temperature and coincident decreases in water availability 5 . In the western United States, increases in regional spring-summer temperatures and earlier snowmelt since the mid-1980s strongly correlate with increases in forest wildfire activity 1 and increases in tree mortality rates 2 . A consistent message has emerged from these studies: the combined effects of increases in temperature and decreases in water availability over the past half-century have impacted the ecological function of mountain forests.The sensitivity of mid-latitude mountain forests to water availability and the associated importance of snowmelt water has been well documented at the plot scale [7][8][9][10] . However, the effects of variations in snowpack accumulation on vegetation activity

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Characteristics of the western United States snowpack from snowpack telemetry (SNOTEL) data

Cited by 566 publications

References 26 publications

Improved simulations of snow extent in the second phase of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP‐2)

Improved simulations of snow extent in the second phase of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP‐2)

Impacts of absorbing aerosol deposition on snowpack and hydrologic cycle in the Rocky Mountain region based on variable-resolution CESM (VR-CESM) simulations

Elevation-dependent influence of snow accumulation on forest greening

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