Influence of snow accumulation and snowmelt on streamflow in the central Spanish Pyrenees / Influence de l’accumulation et de la fonte de la neige sur les écoulements dans les Pyrénées centrales espagnoles

López‐Moreno, Juan I.; García‐Ruiz, José María

doi:10.1623/hysj.49.5.787.55135

Cited by 113 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…band between November and April. This is consistent with López-Moreno and Vicente Serrano ( season occurs between March and June, in agreement with e.g., Lopez-Moreno and Garcia-Ruiz (2004). There is snow on the ground at least 50 % of the time above 1600 m between December and April.…”

Section: Spatiotemporal Influences On the Mean Snow Cover Durationsupporting

confidence: 91%

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A snow cover climatology for the Pyrenees from MODIS snow products

Gascoin

Hagolle

Huc

et al. 2015

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

150

118

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Abstract. The seasonal snow in the Pyrenees is critical for hydropower production, crop irrigation and tourism in France, Spain and Andorra. Complementary to in situ observations, satellite remote sensing is useful to monitor the effect of climate on the snow dynamics. The MODIS daily snow products (Terra/MOD10A1 and Aqua/MYD10A1) are widely used to generate snow cover climatologies, yet it is preferable to assess their accuracies prior to their use. Here, we use both in situ snow observations and remote sensing data to evaluate the MODIS snow products in the Pyrenees. First, we compare the MODIS products to in situ snow depth (SD) and snow water equivalent (SWE) measurements. We estimate the values of the SWE and SD best detection thresholds to 40 mm water equivalent (w.e.) and 150 mm, respectively, for both MOD10A1 and MYD10A1. κ coefficients are within 0.74 and 0.92 depending on the product and the variable for these thresholds. However, we also find a seasonal trend in the optimal SWE and SD thresholds, reflecting the hysteresis in the relationship between the depth of the snowpack (or SWE) and its extent within a MODIS pixel. Then, a set of Landsat images is used to validate MOD10A1 and MYD10A1 for 157 dates between 2002 and 2010. The resulting accuracies are 97 % (κ = 0.85) for MOD10A1 and 96 % (κ = 0.81) for MYD10A1, which indicates a good agreement between both data sets. The effect of vegetation on the results is analyzed by filtering the forested areas using a land cover map. As expected, the accuracies decrease over the forests but the agreement remains acceptable (MOD10A1: 96 %, κ = 0.77; MYD10A1: 95 %, κ = 0.67). We conclude that MODIS snow products have a sufficient accuracy for hydroclimate studies at the scale of the Pyrenees range. Using a gap-filling algorithm we generate a consistent snow cover climatology, which allows us to compute the mean monthly snow cover duration per elevation band and aspect classes. There is snow on the ground at least 50 % of the time above 1600 m between December and April. We finally analyze the snow patterns for the atypical winter 2011-2012. Snow cover duration anomalies reveal a deficient snowpack on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, which seems to have caused a drop in the national hydropower production.

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Section: Spatiotemporal Influences On the Mean Snow Cover Durationsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…As most of the winter precipitation falls as snow in the Pyrenees, the snowmelt is an important contributor to the river flow and shapes the hydrographs of the Pyrenean rivers (Lopez-Moreno and Garcia-Ruiz, 2004;Bejarano et al, 2010). Spring snowmelt is extensively used in downstream areas for crop irrigation during the growing season.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A snow cover climatology for the Pyrenees from MODIS snow products

Gascoin

Hagolle

Huc

et al. 2015

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

150

118

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…One-sixth of the Earth's population depends directly on the water supply from snow and ice melt in mountain areas [1]. Thus, significant research effort has been applied to the study of snow and ice dynamics in these regions [2][3][4][5], with particular focus on mountain hydrology [6][7][8][9]. The snowpack dynamics and its spatial extent also control many mountain processes, including soil erosion, plant survival [10], and glacier surface mass balance [11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Snowpack Simulations in Complex Alpine Terrain Using Satellite and In Situ Observations

et al. 2018

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Abstract:This work presents an extensive evaluation of the Crocus snowpack model over a rugged and highly glacierized mountain catchment (Arve valley, Western Alps, France) from 1989 to 2015. The simulations were compared and evaluated using in-situ point snow depth measurements, in-situ seasonal and annual glacier surface mass balance, snow covered area evolution based on optical satellite imagery at 250 m resolution (MODIS sensor), and the annual equilibrium-line altitude of glaciers, derived from satellite images (Landsat, SPOT, and ASTER). The snowpack simulations were obtained using the Crocus snowpack model driven by the same, originally semi-distributed, meteorological forcing (SAFRAN) reanalysis using the native semi-distributed configuration, but also a fully distributed configuration. The semi-distributed approach addresses land surface simulations for discrete topographic classes characterized by elevation range, aspect, and slope. The distributed approach operates on a 250-m grid, enabling inclusion of terrain shadowing effects, based on the same original meteorological dataset. Despite the fact that the two simulations use the same snowpack model, being potentially subjected to same potential deviation from the parametrization of certain physical processes, the results showed that both approaches accurately reproduced the snowpack distribution over the study period. Slightly (although statistically significantly) better results were obtained by using the distributed approach. The evaluation of the snow cover area with MODIS sensor has shown, on average, a reduction of the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) from 15.2% with the semi-distributed approach to 12.6% with the distributed one. Similarly, surface glacier mass balance RMSE decreased from 1.475 m of water equivalent (W.E.) for the semi-distributed simulation to 1.375 m W.E. for the distribution. The improvement, observed with a much higher computational time, does not justify the recommendation of this approach for all applications; however, for simulations that require a precise representation of snowpack distribution, the distributed approach is suggested.

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“…The influence of snow accumulation and melt is of obvious importance during winter base flows and the subsequent snow melt period, during which large increases in runoff are observable (e.g. López-Moreno and García-Ruiz, 2004). However, their role shifts as climate change progresses; air temperature might increase, periods of solid precipitation are reduced, and snow melt periods will begin earlier in the year (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of relict rock glaciers on spring and stream flow of alpine watersheds: Examples of the Niedere Tauern Range, Eastern Alps (Austria)

Wagner¹,

Pauritsch²,

Winkler³

2016

AJES

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In crystalline mountain regions, relict rock glaciers are apparent sediment accumulations that likely influence the runoff in alpine watersheds as a result of their discharge behavior. However, little is known about their impact on the streamflow further downstream. More than 560 mostly relict rock glacier-related landforms have been identified in the Styrian part of the Niedere Tauern Range (Austria). The catchment of a single relict rock glacier (Schöneben Rock Glacier, SRG), and two catchments with relict rock glaciers in their headwaters were investigated with a simple lumped-parameter rainfall-runoff model. The model parameters of the SRG catchment are in agreement with the existing conceptual understanding of the discharge dynamics and provide the parameter configuration to simulate the runoff of ungauged relict rock glacier catchments in the area. In addition, a semi-distributed approach was applied to quantify the impact of relict rock glacier-influenced headwaters on the downstream runoff. The results suggest that the contribution ranges from about a quarter to more than four times its areal share. The highest impact is observed during the late snow melt period and in the late summer. This highlights the relevance of these sediment accumulations in relation to water manage ment issues, in particular concerning altering meteorological conditions due to climate change.Reliktische Blockgletscher sind augenscheinliche Sedimentanhäufungen in kristallinen Gebirgsregionen, die aufgrund ihrer Abflussdynamik die Entwässerung alpiner Einzugsgebiete beeinflussen. Jedoch ist ihre Auswirkung auf unterstromige Gerinne weitgehend unbekannt. Mehr als 560 meist reliktische Blockgletscher sind im Steirischen Anteil der Niederen Tauern (Österreich) ausgewiesen. Ein über einen reliktischen Blockgletscher (Schöneben Blockgletscher, SRG) entwässerndes Einzugsgebiet und zwei Einzugsgebiete, die ihrerseits reliktische Blockgletscher in ihren hoch gelegenen Anteilen beinhalten, wurden mit Hilfe eines einfachen, räumlich nicht aufgelösten (lumped Parameter) Niederschlags-Abflussmodells untersucht. Die Modellparameter des SRG-Einzugsgebiets stimmen mit dem vorliegenden konzeptionellen Modell überein und dienen als Grundlage der Parameterkonfiguration zur Abflusssimulation anderer Blockgletschereinzugsgebiete in der Region, für die keine Abflussdaten zur Verfügung stehen. Zusätzlich wurde ein semi-distributiver Ansatz angewendet, um den Einfluss von Blockgletscher beeinflussten Einzugsgebieten auf die unterstromigen Gerinne zu quantifizieren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Abflussanteil unterstromig von einem Viertel bis zu mehr als dem Vierfachen des Flächenanteils der übergeordneten Einzugsgebiete beträgt. Die höchsten Anteile können gegen Ende der Schneeschmelze und im Spätsommer beobachtet werden. Dies unterstreicht die wasserwirtschaftliche Bedeutung dieser Schuttakkumulationen in alpinen Einzugsgebieten, vor allem unter der Berücksichtigung der sich ändernden meteorologischen Bedingungen im Zuge des Klimawandels.

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Influence of snow accumulation and snowmelt on streamflow in the central Spanish Pyrenees / Influence de l’accumulation et de la fonte de la neige sur les écoulements dans les Pyrénées centrales espagnoles

Cited by 113 publications

References 36 publications

A snow cover climatology for the Pyrenees from MODIS snow products

A snow cover climatology for the Pyrenees from MODIS snow products

Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Snowpack Simulations in Complex Alpine Terrain Using Satellite and In Situ Observations

Impact of relict rock glaciers on spring and stream flow of alpine watersheds: Examples of the Niedere Tauern Range, Eastern Alps (Austria)

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