Changes in snowpack accumulation and ablation in the intermountain west

Water Resources Research

Volumn 48, Issue 11, 2012, Pages

  Harpold, Adrian ^a,b   Brooks, Paul ^a   Rajagopal, Seshadri ^a,c   Heidbuchel, Ingo ^a   Jardine, Angela ^a   Stielstra, Clare ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO   (United States)

^c DESERT RESEARCH INSTITUTE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CENTER OF MASS; COLORADO RIVER; COLORADO RIVER BASIN; GREAT BASIN; MASS AND ENERGY BALANCE; MOUNTAIN RANGES; NON-PARAMETRIC; RIO GRANDE; RIVER BASINS; SIERRA NEVADA; SNOW COVERS; SNOW WATER EQUIVALENT; SNOWMELT; SNOWPACK ACCUMULATION; WINTER PRECIPITATION;

DIGITAL STORAGE; RAIN; RIVERS; SNOW MELTING SYSTEMS; VOLCANIC ROCKS; WATERSHEDS;

SNOW;

ACCUMULATION; ENERGY BALANCE; RIVER BASIN; SNOW WATER EQUIVALENT; SNOWMELT; SNOWPACK; WINTER;

CALIFORNIA; INTERMOUNTAIN WEST; SIERRA NEVADA [CALIFORNIA]; UNITED STATES;

EID: 84868629209     PISSN: 00431397     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1029/2012WR011949     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. Bales, R., N. P. Molotch, T. H. Painter, M. D. Dettinger, R. Rice, and J. Dozier (2006), Mountain hydrology of the western United States, Water Resour. Res., 42, W08432, doi:10.1029/2005WR004387. (Pubitemid 44506752)
2. Barnett, T. P., J. C. Adam, and D. P. Lettenmaier (2005), Potential impacts of a warming climate on water availability in snow-dominated regions, Nature, 438, 303-309, doi:10.1038/nature04141. (Pubitemid 41643941)
3. Bewley, D., Y. Alila, and A. Varhola (2010), Variability of snow water equivalent and snow energetics across large catchment subject to mountain pine beetle infestation and rapid salvage logging, J. Hydrol., 388, 464-479, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2010.05.031.
4. Bohr, G. S., and E. Aguado (2001), Use of April 1 SWE measurements as estimates of peak seasonal snowpack and total cold-season precipitation, Water Resour. Res., 37, 51-60. (Pubitemid 32100601)
5. Breshears, D. D., N. S. Cobb, P. M. Rich, K. P. Price, C. D. Allen, R. G. Balice, W. H. Romme, and J. H. Kastens (2005), Regional vegetation die-off in response to global-change-type drought, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 102, 15,144-15,148, doi:10.1073/pnas.0505734102. (Pubitemid 41513349)
6. Cayan, D. R., M. D. Dettinger, S. A. Kammerdiener, J. M. Caprio, and D. H. Peterson (2001), Changes in the onset of spring in the western United States, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 82, 399-415. (Pubitemid 33637110)
7. Christensen, N. S., and D. P. Lettenmaier (2007), A multimodel ensemble approach to assessment of climate change impacts on the hydrology and water resources of the Colorado River Basin, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 11, 1417-1434, doi:10.5194/hess-11-1417-2007. (Pubitemid 47151994)
8. Christensen, N. S., A. W. Wood, N. Voisin, D. P. Lettenmaier, and R. N. Palmer (2004), Effects of climate change on the hydrology and water resources of the Colorado River Basin, Clim. Change, 62, 337-363, doi:10.1023/B:clim. 0000013684.13621.1f. (Pubitemid 38300007)
9. Cline, D. W. (1997a), Snow surface energy exchanges and snowmelt at a continental midlatitude Alpine site, Water Resour. Res., 33, 689-701.
10. Cline, D. W. (1997b), Effect of seasonality of snow accumulation and melt on snow surface energy exchanges at a continental alpine site, J. Appl. Meteorol., 36, 32-51.
11. Clow, D. W. (2010), Changes in the timing of snowmelt and streamflow in Colorado: A response to recent warming, J. Clim., 23, 2293-2306, doi:10.1175/2009JCLI2951.1.
12. Diaz, H. F., and J. K. Eischeid (2007), Disappearing ''alpine tundra'' Köppen climatic type in the western United States, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L18707, doi:10.1029/2007GL031253. (Pubitemid 350186718)
13. Dressler, K. A., S. R. Fassnacht, and R. C. Bales (2006), A comparison of snow telemetry and snow course measurements in the Colorado River Basin, J. Hydrometeorol., 7, 705-712, doi:10.1175/jhm506.1. (Pubitemid 44430739)
14. Fritze, H., I. T. Stewart, and E. Pebesma (2011), Shifts in western North American snowmelt runoff regimes for the recent warm decades, J. Hydrometeor., 12, 989-1006, doi:10.1175/2011JHM1360.1.
15. Gustafson, J. R., P. D. Brooks, N. P. Molotch, and W. C. Veatch (2010), Estimating snow sublimation using natural chemical and isotopic tracers across a gradient of radiation, Water Resour. Res., 46, W12511, doi:10.1029/ 2009WR009060.
16. Helsel, D. R., and L. M. Frans (2006), Regional Kendall test for trend, Environ. Sci. Technol., 40, 4066-4073, doi:10.1021/es051650b. (Pubitemid 44161656)
17. Hidalgo, H. G., et al. (2009), Detection and attribution of streamflow timing changes to climate change in the western United States, J. Clim., 22, 3838-3855, doi:10.1175/2009JCLI2470.1.
18. Hood, E., M. Williams, and D. Cline (1999), Sublimation from a seasonal snowpack at a continental mid-latitude alpine site, Hydrol. Processes, 13, 1781-1797. (Pubitemid 30024781)
19. Hu, J., D. J. Moore, S. P. Burns, and R. K. Monson (2010), Longer growing seasons lead to less carbon sequestration by a subalpine forest, Global Change Biol., 16, 771-783, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009. 01967.
20. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007), Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge Univ. Press, New York.
21. Jackson, S. I., and T. D. Prowse (2009), Spatial variation of snowmelt and sublimation in a high-elevation semi-desert basin of western Canada, Hydrol. Processes, 28(13), 2611-2627, doi:10.1002/hyp.7320.
22. Kapnick, S., and A. Hall (2012), Causes of recent changes in western North American snowpack, Clim. Dyn., 38(9-10), 1885-1899, doi:10.1007/ s00382-011-1089-y.
23. Knowles, N., M. D. Dettinger, and R. Cayan (2006), Trends in snowfall versus rainfall in the western United States, J. Clim., 19, 4545-4559, doi:10.1175/JCLI3850.1. (Pubitemid 44541868)
24. Long, C. N., E. G. Dutton, J. A. Augustine, W. Wiscombe, M. Wild, S. A. McFarlane, and C. J. Flynn (2009), Significant decadal brightening of downwelling shortwave in the continental United States, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D00D06, doi:10.1029/2008JD011263.
25. Male, D. H., and R. J. Granger (1981), Snow surface energy exchange, Water Resour. Res., 17(3), 609-627.
26. Marks, D., and J. Dozier (1992), Climate and energy exchange at the snow surface in the alpine region of the Sierra Nevada: 2. Snow cover energy balance, Water Resour. Res., 28, 3043-3054. (Pubitemid 23377442)
27. Marks, D., and A. Winstral (2001), Comparison of snow deposition, the snow cover energy balance, and snowmelt at two site in a semiarid mountain basin, J. Hydrometeorol., 2(3), 213-227.
28. McCabe, G. J., and M. P. Clark (2005), Trends and variability in snowmelt runoff in the western United States, J. Hydrometeorol., 6, 476-482, doi:10.1175/jhm428.1. (Pubitemid 41419774)
29. McCabe, G. J., and M. D. Dettinger (1999), Decadal variations in the strength of ENSO teleconnections with precipitation in the western United States, Int. J. Climatol., 19(13), 1399-1410. (Pubitemid 30054519)
30. McCabe, G. J., and D. M. Wolock (2007), Warming may create substantial water supply shortages in the Colorado River basin, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L22708, doi:10.1029/2007GL031764. (Pubitemid 351222824)
31. Molotch, N. P., and R. C. Bales (2006), SNOTEL representativeness in the Rio Grande headwaters on the basis of physiographics and remotely sensed snow cover persistence, Hydrol. Processes, 20(4), 723-739, doi:10.1002/hyp.6128. (Pubitemid 43380326)
32. Mote, P. W. (2006), Climate-driven variability and trends in mountain snowpack in western North America, J. Clim., 19, 6209-6220, doi:10.1175/ jcli3971.1. (Pubitemid 46085104)
33. Mote, P. W., A. F. Hamlet, M. P. Clark, and D. P. Lettenmaier (2005), Declining mountain snowpack in western North America, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 86, 39-49, doi:10.1175/BAMS-86-1-39. (Pubitemid 40285470)
34. Neff, J. C., A. P. Ballantyne, G. L. Farmer, N. M. Mahowald, J. L. Conroy, C. C. Landry, J. T. Overpeck, T. H. Painter, C. R. Lawrence, and R. L. Reynolds (2008) Increasing eoliani dust deposition in the western UnitedStates linked to human activity, Nat. Geosci., 1, 189-195, doi:10.1038/ ngeo133.
35. Painter, T. H., A. P. Barrett, C. C. Landry, J. C. Neff, M. P. Cassidy, C. R. Lawrence, K. E. McBride, and G. L. Farmer (2007), Impact of disturbed desert soils on duration of mountain snow cover, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L12502, doi:10.1029/2007GL030284. (Pubitemid 351193190)
36. Painter, T. H., J. S. Deems, J. Belnap, A. F. Hamlet, C. C. Landry, and B. Udall (2010), Response of Colorado River runoff to dust radiative forcing in snow, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 107, 17,125-17,130, doi:10.1073/pnas. 0913139107.
37. Pierce, D. W., et al. (2008), Attribution of declining western US snowpack to human effects, J. Clim., 21, 6425-6444, doi:10.1175/2008JCLI2405.1.
38. Raffa, K. F., B. H. Aukema, B. J. Bentz, A. L. Carroll, J. A. Hicke, M. G. Turner, and W. H. Romme (2008), Cross-scale driver of natural disturbances prone to anthropogenic amplification: The dynamics of bark beetle eruptions, BioScience, 58, 501-517, doi:10.1641/b580607. (Pubitemid 351881194)
39. Rajagopalan, B., K. Nowak, J. Prairie, M. Hoerling, B. Harding, J. Barsugli, A. Ray, and B. Udall (2009),Water supply risk on the Colorado River: Can management mitigate?, Water Resour. Res., 45, W08201, doi:10.1029/ 2008WR007652.
40. Rauscher, S. A., J. S. Pal, N. S. Diffenbaugh, and M. M. Benedetti (2008), Future changes in snowmelt-driven runoff timing over the western US, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L16703, doi:10.1029/2008GL034424.
41. Reba, M. L., D. Marks, A. Winstral, T. E. Link, and M. Kumar (2011), Sensitivity of snowcover energetics in a mountain basin to variations in climate, Hydrol. Processes, 25(21), 3312-3321, doi:10.1002/hyp.8155.
42. Regonda, S. K., B. Rajagopalan, M. Clark, and J. Pitlick (2005), Seasonal cycle shifts in hydroclimatology over the western United States, J. Clim., 18, 372-384, doi:10.1175/JCLI-3272.1. (Pubitemid 40323033)
43. Rinehart, A. J., E. R. Vivoni, and P. D. Brooks (2008), Effects of vegetation albedo and solar radiation sheltering on the distribution of snow in the Valles Caldera New Mexico, Ecohydrology, 1, 253-270, doi:10.1002/eco.26.
44. Seager, R., and G. A. Vecchi (2010), Greenhouse warming and the 21st century hydroclimate of southwestern North America, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 107, 21,277-21,282, doi:10.1073/pnas.0910856107.
45. Sen, P. K. (1968), Estimates of the regression coefficient based on Kendall's tau, J. Am. Stat. Assoc., 63, 1379-1389.
46. Serreze, M. C., M. P. Clark, R. L. Armstrong, D. A. McGinnis, and R. S. Pulwarty (1999), Characteristics of western United States snowpack from telemetry (SNOTEL) data, Water Resour. Res., 35, 2145-2160. (Pubitemid 29311646)
47. Stewart, I. T., D. R. Cayan, and M. D. Dettinger (2005), Changes toward earlier streamflow timing across western North America, J. Clim., 18, 1136-1155, doi:10.1175/JCLI3321.1. (Pubitemid 40717073)
48. Veatch, W., P. D. Brooks, J. R. Gustafson, and N. P. Molotch (2009), Quantifying the effects of forest canopy cover on net snow accumulation at a continental, mid-latitude site, Ecohydrology, 2(2), 115-128, doi:10.1002/ eco.45.
49. Wild, M. A., A. Ohmura, H. Gilgen, and D. Rosenfeld (2004), On the consistency of trends in radiation and temperature records and the implication for the global hydrological cycle, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L11201, doi:10.1029/2003GL019188. (Pubitemid 39103489)
50. Yue, S., P. Pilon, and G. Cavadias (2002), Power of the Mann-Kendall and Spearman's rho tests for detecting monotonic trends in hydrological series, Hydrol. Processes, 264, 262-263, doi:10.1016/S0022-1694(01) 00594-7.
51. Zhou, H. F., X.-J. Zheng, B. Zhou, Q. Dai, and Y. Li. (2012), Sublimation over seasonal snowpack at the southeastern edge of a desert in central Eurasia, Hydrol. Processes, doi:10.1002/hyp.8402, in press.