Dust radiative forcing in snow of the Upper Colorado River Basin: 1. A 6 year record of energy balance, radiation, and dust concentrations

Painter, T. H.; Skiles, M.; Deems, J. S.; Bryant, A. C.; Landry, Christopher C.

doi:10.1029/2012wr011985

Cited by 186 publications

(264 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The presence of dust was monitored by drying the quartz fiber filters and weighting the mass on them (Kaspari et al, 2014;Painter et al, 2012). Snow density was measured with a stainless steel tube-type cutter and a scale (Conger and McClung, 2009).…”

Section: Samples and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate effect of black carbon aerosol in a Tibetan Plateau glacier

Song

Cao

et al. 2015

Atmospheric Environment

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h i g h l i g h t sWe sampled surface snow and snow pits in the snowmelt season in a Tibetan glacier. We depicted the variability of BC, OC, and dust concentrations. Scavenging efficiency and enrichment for BC and OC were derived. We evaluated BC radiative forcing in snow using SNICAR. a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c tIn the Tibetan Plateau, the black carbon (BC) concentration in surface snow and snow pits has received much attention, whereas the seasonal behavior of aerosol-in-snow concentration, vertical profile, meltscavenging, and enrichment have received relatively little attention. Here we investigate these processes and their impacts on radiative forcing on the Muji glacier in the westernmost Tibetan Plateau during the 2012 snowmelt season. Increasing impurity concentrations were mostly due to post-deposition effects rather than new deposition. On 5 July, BC concentrations in the surface snow were higher than those of fresh snow, implying enrichment via sublimation and/or melting of previous snow. Fresh snow contained 25 ng g À1 BC on 27 July; afterward, BC gradually increased, reaching 730.6 ng g À1 in September. BC, organic carbon (OC), and dust concentrations co-varied but differed in magnitude. Melt-scavenging efficiencies were estimated at 0.19 ± 0.05 and 0.04 ± 0.01 for OC and BC, respectively, and the BC in surface snow increased by 20e25 times depending on melt intensity. BC-in-snow radiative forcing (RF) was approximately 2.2 W m À2 for fresh snow and 18.1e20.4 W m À2 for aged snow, and was sometimes reduced by the presence of dust.

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Section: Samples and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate effect of black carbon aerosol in a Tibetan Plateau glacier

Song

Cao

et al. 2015

Atmospheric Environment

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“…To our best knowledge, the only published observations were conducted at two sites in the Southern Rockies: one in the Senator Beck Basin Study Area (SBBSA) in the San Juan Mountains with at least 9-year (2005-2013) records (Painter et al, 2012;Skiles et al, 2015;Skiles and Painter, 2016a, b) and the other in the Grand Mesa (∼ 150 km to the north of SBBSA) with at least 4-year (2010-2013) records . Snow samples in the top 30 cm of the snow column were collected at irregular time intervals from March to June.…”

Section: Observationsmentioning

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 physical and optical properties of snow are influenced by the presence of impurities, in particular by absorbing material such as aerosol particles deposited on the snow surface (e.g., Doherty et al 2010 andPainter et al 2012). Effects of aerosol particles on, for instance, snow melt and albedo (e.g., Meinander et al 2013) and bidirectional reflection (Peltoniemi et al 2009) have been studied for natural snow and during campaigns where impurities were deposited on snow in different quantities (e.g., Meinander et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insulation effects of Icelandic dust and volcanic ash on snow and ice

et al. 2016

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In the Arctic region, Iceland is an important source of dust due to ash production from volcanic eruptions. In addition, dust is resuspended from the surface into the atmosphere as several dust storms occur each year. During volcanic eruptions and dust storms, material is deposited on the glaciers where it influences their energy balance. The effects of deposited volcanic ash on ice and snow melt were examined using laboratory and outdoor experiments. These experiments were made during the snow melt period using two different ash grain sizes (1 ϕ and 3.5 ϕ) from the Eyjafjallajökull 2010 eruption, collected on the glacier. Different amounts of ash were deposited on snow or ice, after which the snow properties and melt were measured. The results show that a thin ash layer increases the snow and ice melt but an ash layer exceeding a certain critical thickness caused insulation. Ash with 1 ϕ in grain size insulated the ice below at a thickness of 9-15 mm. For the 3.5 ϕ grain size, the insulation thickness is 13 mm. The maximum melt occurred at a thickness of 1 mm for the 1 ϕ and only 1-2 mm for 3.5 ϕ ash. A map of dust concentrations on Vatnajökull that represents the dust deposition during the summer of 2013 is presented with concentrations ranging from 0.2 up to 16.6 g m −2 .

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Dust radiative forcing in snow of the Upper Colorado River Basin: 1. A 6 year record of energy balance, radiation, and dust concentrations

Cited by 186 publications

References 19 publications

Climate effect of black carbon aerosol in a Tibetan Plateau glacier

Climate effect of black carbon aerosol in a Tibetan Plateau glacier

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

Insulation effects of Icelandic dust and volcanic ash on snow and ice

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