Impact of melting snow on the valley flow field and precipitation phase transition

Thériault, Julie M.; Milbrandt, Jason A.; Doyle, Jonathan; Minder, Justin R.; Thompson, Gregory; Sarkadi, Noémi; Geresdi, István

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2014.12.006

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Precipitation is one of the most important weather elements which can represent a crucial part of the global water cycle, and it is a fundamental aspect of storms (Thériault et al , ). Because of changes in precipitation pattern leading to floods, droughts, loss of biodiversity and agricultural productivity, the spatial and temporal trends of precipitation results are important for climate analyst and water resources planner (Elsner et al , ; Sayemuzzaman and Jha, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in annual, seasonal and monthly precipitation events and their link with elevation in Sichuan province, China

Zeng

et al. 2015

Intl Journal of Climatology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study performs the spatial and temporal trend analysis of the annual, seasonal and monthly time series of a set of uniformly distributed 36 stations precipitation data in Sichuan Province during 1960-2013. The result indicates that the annual precipitation amount and precipitation days across the region have decreasing trends, but the last is significant. The annual precipitation intensity and maximum 1-day precipitation have slightly increasing trends. Although annual precipitation amount and precipitation days decline, annual precipitation intensity and maximum 1-day precipitation rise. This reflects that droughts and floods increase in Sichuan Province in recent years. Seasonally, precipitation amount has decreased in all seasons, while autumn precipitation amount is statistically significant. Regionally average trends in precipitation days also show large differences in all seasons. The temporal variability in regional precipitation intensity increases except for autumn, but significant increases are found in spring and summer. Regional maximum 1-day precipitation has significantly increasing trends in spring and summer, but slightly decreasing trend in autumn and winter. On a monthly basis, trends of precipitation amount show tremendous differences. Spatial changes in annual, seasonal and monthly precipitation events are not the same, and they are not clustered, either. Additionally, the correlations between elevation and the magnitudes of the trends in annual precipitation amount and precipitation days are statistically significant whereas the correlations are not perfect in precipitation intensity and maximum 1-day precipitation. As can be seen from the seasonal and monthly precipitation amount, the correlations between elevation and the magnitudes of the trends in precipitation amount are higher in spring and autumn, but not perfect in summer and winter. April, October and December precipitation amount shows the strongest positive correlations with elevation. On the whole, the increasing trend of precipitation is relatively prominent at higher elevations, while the decrease trend is more significant at low elevation stations.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in annual, seasonal and monthly precipitation events and their link with elevation in Sichuan province, China

Zeng

et al. 2015

Intl Journal of Climatology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The ZDI can change throughout the year, between storms, and even during individual storms. Changes in storm intensity, wind, or temperature can cause rain to fall in high elevations, modifying existing snow cover [1]. These events are known as rain-on-snow (ROS).…”

Section: Dynamics Of Rain-on-snow Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Fingerprints of Past Rain-on-Snow Events in a Central Andean Mountain Range Basin Using Satellite Imagery

Melgar

Meza

2020

Remote Sensing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rain-on-snow (ROS) events can alter nival regimes and increase snowmelt, peak river flow, and reduce water storage. However, detection of ROS events is challenging and only the most intense and obvious cases are identified. Rain is known to reduce snow cover and decrease near-infrared reflectance due to increased grain size. This study explored the fingerprints of ROS events on mountain snowpack with a simple typology that classifies changes in snow reflectance using fifteen years of MODIS imagery, reanalysis, and surface hydrometeorological data. The Maipo River Basin, with strong nival regime and a steep topography, in the western Andean mountain range was selected as a case study. Statistical analysis showed two distinct and opposite responses in the near infrared reflectance distribution of snow-covered pixels after precipitation, consistent with the typology for rain or snow events. For the probable ROS events, the daily maximum and minimum temperature increased in the days preceding the event and subsequently decreased, in some cases followed by a less consistent response in river flow. Although much remains to be studied, this approach can be used to expand historical records and improve modelling and detection schemes.

show abstract

“…During precipitation, Z 0C lies at the top of the snow-rain transition zone in which both frozen and liquid hydrometeors coexist (AMS, 2021). Below the Z 0C altitude, an isothermal layer of nearly 0 °C may form (Findeisen, 1940;Marwitz, 1983;Unterstrasser and Zängl, 2006;Thériault et al, 2015). In general, an isothermal layer is defined as a vertical column of air having a constant temperature with height.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Snowline and 0°C Isotherm Altitudes During Precipitation Events in the Dry Subtropical Chilean Andes as Seen by Citizen Science, Surface Stations, and ERA5 Reanalysis Data

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the variability of the snowline and the closely related 0°C isotherm during infrequent precipitation events in the dry Andes in Chile is fundamental for precipitation, snow cover, and discharge predictions. For instance, it is known that on the windward side of mountains, the 0°C isotherm can be several hundreds of meters lower than on the free air upwind counterpart, but little is understood about such effects in the Andes due to missing in situ evidence on the precipitation phase. To bridge this gap, 111 photographs of the snowline after precipitation events between 2011 and 2021 were gathered in the frame of a citizen science programme to estimate the snowline altitude. Since photographs of the mountain snowline are in good agreement with Sentinel-2 imagery, they have great potential to validate empirical snowline estimations. Using the snowline altitude from the photos, we evaluated different methods to estimate the snowline and 0°C isotherm altitude during precipitation events based on surface meteorological observations and ERA5 reanalysis data. We found a high correlation between the observed snowline altitude and the extrapolated 0°C isotherm based on constant lapse rates (−5.5 to −6.5°C km−1) applied to air temperature from single, near stations. However, uncertainty increases for distances >10 km. The results also indicate that the linear regression method is a good option to estimate ZSL, but the results strongly depend on the availability of high-elevation station datasets. During half of the precipitation events, the 0°C isotherm lies between ∼1,800 and ∼2,400–2,500 m asl. in winter, and the snowline is on average ∼280 m below this altitude. Our results indicate the presence of a mesoscale lowering of the 0°C isotherm over the windward slopes compared to the free-air upwind value during precipitation events and a possible isothermal layer of near-freezing air temperatures comparable to other mountain ranges. Due to this mesoscale and local behavior, ERA5 data generally overestimate the snow–rain transition in high-elevation areas, especially for relatively intense events. On the other hand, the 0°C isotherm altitude is underestimated if only low-elevation valley stations are considered, highlighting the importance of high-altitude meteorological stations in the network.

show abstract

Impact of melting snow on the valley flow field and precipitation phase transition

Cited by 13 publications

References 32 publications

Changes in annual, seasonal and monthly precipitation events and their link with elevation in Sichuan province, China

Changes in annual, seasonal and monthly precipitation events and their link with elevation in Sichuan province, China

Exploring the Fingerprints of Past Rain-on-Snow Events in a Central Andean Mountain Range Basin Using Satellite Imagery

The Snowline and 0°C Isotherm Altitudes During Precipitation Events in the Dry Subtropical Chilean Andes as Seen by Citizen Science, Surface Stations, and ERA5 Reanalysis Data

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About