Article
Environmental Sciences
Aleh Meshyk, Maryna Barushka, Viktoryia Marozava
Summary: There are differences in snow cover characteristics between Belarus and neighboring countries, with variations in snow water equivalent related to altitude, year, and region. Snow water equivalent shows cyclic changes and correlates with current climate fluctuations. There is a trend of decreasing snow water equivalent in certain parts of Belarus, while meltwater and river runoff data support the findings.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yonas B. Dibike, Rajesh R. Shrestha, Colin Johnson, Barrie Bonsal, Paulin Coulibaly
Summary: The study found that snow water equivalent, April 1st snow water equivalent, and spring precipitation are the most important predictors of annual maximum flows and mean spring flows in western Canadian river basins. The MLR framework is useful for assessing the spatial variation in hydroclimatic controls. Future projections show significant spatial variations in annual maximum and mean spring flows.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Heather Kropp, Michael M. Loranty, Nick Rutter, Christopher G. Fletcher, Chris Derksen, Lawrence Mudryk, Markus Todt
Summary: The timing and rate of spring snowmelt in northern high latitudes are important for the environment. Forests and grasslands are more conducive to snowmelt compared to other land cover types.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Yufei Liu, Yiwen Fang, Dongyue Li, Steven A. Margulis
Summary: This study examined eight global snow products in High Mountain Asia and found that there was an average underestimation of 33% in peak annual snow storage. The variability in cumulative snowfall explained the majority of the uncertainty in peak snow storage.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Heidi Bache Stranden, Turid Haugen, Thomas Skaugen, Knut Moen
Summary: Continuous monitoring of snow water equivalent is crucial for natural hazard assessment, power production planning, and water supply forecasting. The study found that the M2525 snow scale overestimated the measurement by 0.14 compared to manual surveys, but did not exhibit the same pressure relief issues as a snow pillow.
COLD REGIONS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Rolf Ole R. Jenssen, Svein K. Jacobsen
Summary: This paper presents a method for remotely estimating snow water equivalent (SWE) using UAV-mounted radar and initial field experiments show high repeatability and good agreement with simulations. System improvements are outlined to increase the accuracy of the snow density estimator based on F-K migration technique.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Nicola Colombo, Nicolas Guyennon, Mauro Valt, Franco Salerno, Danilo Godone, Paola Cianfarra, Michele Freppaz, Maurizio Maugeri, Veronica Manara, Fiorella Acquaotta, Anna Bruna Petrangeli, Emanuele Romano
Summary: Snow drought event occurred in the Italian Alps in the early 2020s, causing severe water resource shortages and hydrological drought. Using long-term snow-depth series, climatic reanalysis data, and river discharge observations, it was found that the March snow water equivalent anomaly in 2022 reached a record low value due to unprecedented dry and warm climatic conditions. This event led to the worst hydrological drought ever recorded in the Po and Adige rivers during the summer of 2022. Furthermore, there has been an increasing trend in the intensity and frequency of snow drought events since the 1990s, with three of the most severe events occurring in the last five years.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jie-Yuan Kan, Teng-Fei Li, Ming Xu, Ren-Ying Zhang, Zi-Xuan Wang, Yu-Xi Feng
Summary: The study estimates the impacts of wildfires on snow accumulation and retention in the San Joaquin watershed by analyzing the spatiotemporal visual variations in the snow water equivalent (SWE) from 2000 to 2016. The results show that wildfires have significantly increased the speed of snowmelt and shortened the timing of water availability, potentially leading to water resource shortages. Furthermore, the frequency of wildfires in recent years is much higher than in the past twenty years, and there is a strong positive correlation between fire severity and SWE values.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ioanna Merkouriadi, Juha Lemmetyinen, Glen E. Liston, Jouni Pulliainen
Summary: This study examines the challenges of assimilating active and passive microwave signatures with physical snow models, showing that critical challenges exist due to the physical relationship between SWE and snow microstructure. Through sensitivity experiments, it is demonstrated that these challenges can be overcome if microwave algorithms account for these relationships.
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Emily E. Smoot, Kelly E. Gleason
Summary: As climate warms, snow-water storage decreases and forest fires increase, leading to reduced water availability. In some regions, burned forests accelerate snowmelt, affecting water resources across the area.
Article
Water Resources
Ying Yi, Shiyin Liu, Xianhe Zhang, Yanwei Yang, Yu Zhu, Funing Cui, Kunpeng Wu, Fuming Xie
Summary: This study investigates the characteristics and influencing factors of spring floods in the upper reaches of the Jinsha River in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. It is found that the highest spring floods occur in late May and some years have multiple peaks. Most of the floods are caused by spring snowmelt, but in 2012 and 2020, floods were triggered by a combination of snowmelt and rainfall. The key regions contributing to high spring floods are concentrated in the Tongtianhe sub-basin and the northern parts of the Batang-Zhimenda sub-basin, where there is a large snow water volume. The enhanced Westerly jets in winters bring abundant snowfall and extended snow cover, which can be released as floods in spring.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY-REGIONAL STUDIES
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Randall Bonnell, Daniel McGrath, Keith Williams, Ryan Webb, Steven R. Fassnacht, Hans-Peter Marshall
Summary: Radar instruments are widely used for measuring snow water equivalent (SWE), with Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar being a promising method from spaceborne platforms. Velocity estimates are a significant source of uncertainty in radar SWE retrievals, especially in wet snow where velocity is influenced by snow density and liquid water content (LWC). Utilizing ground-penetrating radar, researchers measured snow depths, density, and estimated SWE and LWC values, showing that LWC variability is key in accurately measuring SWE for future radar missions.
Article
Engineering, Civil
Tao Yang, Qian Li, Rafiq Hamdi, Xi Chen, Qiang Zou, Fengqi Cui, Philippe De Maeyer, Lanhai Li
Summary: This study investigated the spatiotemporal variability of rain-on-snow (ROS) events in High Mountain Asia and its influencing factors. The results showed that ROS events occurred more frequently in higher-elevation regions and experienced a significant decrease in some areas due to warming, while increasing in other areas.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Mohamed Wassim Baba, Abdelghani Boudhar, Simon Gascoin, Lahoucine Hanich, Ahmed Marchane, Abdelghani Chehbouni
Summary: The study assessed the performance of ERA5 and MERRA-2 climate reanalysis in calculating the spatial distribution of snow water equivalent in the High Atlas range in Morocco, and found that both models can effectively reproduce the snowpack state, with ERA5 having a lower bias in performance.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Daniel McGrath, Lucas Zeller, Randall Bonnell, Wyatt Reis, Stephanie Kampf, Keith Williams, Marianne Okal, Alex Olsen-Mikitowicz, Ella Bump, Megan Sears, Karl Rittger
Summary: Wildfires are increasingly affecting high-elevation forests in the western United States, impacting critical water reservoirs that accumulate seasonal snowpacks. The 2020 Cameron Peak wildfire in Colorado resulted in a significant decrease in peak snow water equivalent in a high burn severity forest during the subsequent winter. The loss of forest canopy and lower surface albedo led to higher melt rates and earlier snow disappearance in the burned area.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Lori J. Wachowicz, Thomas L. Mote, Gina R. Henderson
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
(2020)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Paul W. Miller, Thomas L. Mote, Abhishek Kumar, Deepak R. Mishra
THEORETICAL AND APPLIED CLIMATOLOGY
(2020)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Flavia D. S. Moraes, Francisco E. Aquino, Thomas L. Mote, Joshua D. Durkee, Kyle S. Mattingly
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Bradford S. Barrett, Gina R. Henderson, Erin McDonnell, Major Henry, Thomas Mote
ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE LETTERS
(2020)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Edward Hanna, John Cappelen, Xavier Fettweis, Sebastian H. Mernild, Thomas L. Mote, Ruth Mottram, Konrad Steffen, Thomas J. Ballinger, Richard Hall
Summary: The analysis of Greenland temperature data reveals that despite significant warming trends in recent decades, overall temperature trends have been relatively stable and insignificant since 2001. Additionally, both coastal and inland stations in Greenland show similar trends in summer temperature changes.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Kyle S. Mattingly, Thomas L. Mote, Xavier Fettweis, Dirk Van As, Kristof Van Tricht, Stef Lhermitte, Claire Pettersen, Robert S. Fausto
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2020)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Lori J. Wachowicz, Jonathon R. Preece, Thomas L. Mote, Bradford S. Barrett, Gina R. Henderson
Summary: As the Arctic warms, the hypothesis of increased Greenland blocking due to changes in jet stream and Rossby waves propagation is supported with observational data. However, trends in Greenland blocking are found to be sensitive to different blocking metrics, leading to inconsistencies in trends. Seasonal variations show significant increases in blocking for certain months, but overall trends are not statistically significant. Using multiple metrics can help provide a more comprehensive understanding of Greenland blocking trends.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
P. W. Miller, M. Williams, T. Mote
Summary: Long-range aerosol transport plays a crucial role in the Earth's ecological, biological, and hydrological elements. This study evaluates the accuracy of different dust emission settings in the WRF-Chem model and finds that the GOCART-AFWA scheme provides the best balance between AOD and GDI accuracy. Different dust emission configurations in the model lead to varying meteorological conditions and aerosol optical depth biases in certain regions, highlighting the covariability between SAL dust loadings and thermodynamic conditions.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Zachary J. Suriano, Daniel J. Leathers, Thomas L. Mote, Gina R. Henderson, Thomas W. Estilow, Lori J. Wachowicz, David A. Robinson
Summary: At a continental scale, changes in snow ablation events inform regional hydroclimate, affecting streamflow, soil moisture, and groundwater supplies. The study shows a significant decrease in snow ablation frequency over time, with some regions experiencing up to a 75% decline in events, mainly due to reductions in snow cover.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Gina R. Henderson, Bradford S. Barrett, Lori J. Wachowicz, Kyle S. Mattingly, Jonathon R. Preece, Thomas L. Mote
Summary: Arctic amplification is a fundamental feature of Earth's climate system, but its specific causes are not fully understood. The future Arctic amplification may be influenced by multiple mechanisms, including both local processes and external forces. Climate change will have impacts on sea ice, ice sheet surface mass balance, snow cover, and other surface cryospheric variables in the Arctic region.
FRONTIERS IN EARTH SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Flavia D. S. Moraes, Thomas L. Mote, Lynne Seymour
Summary: This study investigates the spatial distribution of seasonal drought in the insular Caribbean and its relationship with ENSO, NAO, and AMM. The results show a drying trend in both Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles, with more intense and frequent drought events in the Lesser Antilles. The study aims to improve drought forecasts and help the region prepare for seasonal droughts.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
J. R. Preece, L. J. Wachowicz, T. L. Mote, M. Tedesco, X. Fettweis
Summary: The recent increase in summer Greenland blocking, driven by an increase in Omega patterns, has played a central role in the accelerating mass loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Different blocking patterns, such as summer ridge patterns, Omega blocks, and cyclonic wave breaking patterns, have varying impacts on the surface melt of the ice sheet.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kyle S. S. Mattingly, Jenny V. V. Turton, Jonathan D. D. Wille, Brice Noel, Xavier Fettweis, Asa K. Rennermalm, Thomas L. L. Mote
Summary: The Greenland Ice Sheet has been melting at an accelerated rate, particularly in northeast Greenland. The extreme melt events in this region are mainly caused by atmospheric rivers (ARs) from northwest Greenland, which induce foehn winds in the northeast. These events have become more frequent in the twenty-first century and are expected to continue increasing with climate warming.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jonathon R. Preece, Thomas L. Mote, Judah Cohen, Lori J. Wachowicz, John A. Knox, Marco Tedesco, Gabriel J. Kooperman
Summary: A shift in summer atmospheric circulation has accelerated Greenland Ice Sheet melt. The authors provide evidence of two potentially synergistic mechanisms linking high-latitude warming to the observed increase in Greenland blocking. They show that a wavier summer atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic, along with a direct stationary Rossby wave response to low spring North American snow cover, contribute to the prevalence of Greenland blocking.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Geography, Physical
Thomas J. Ballinger, Thomas L. Mote, Kyle Mattingly, Angela C. Bliss, Edward Hanna, Dirk van As, Melissa Prieto, Saeideh Gharehchahi, Xavier Fettweis, Brice Noel, Paul C. J. P. Smeets, Carleen H. Reijmer, Mads H. Ribergaard, John Cappelen
