Elevation-dependent behavior of hoar-prominent snowpack on forest slopes in the Japanese Central Alps based on a decade of observations
ABSTRACT Full snow-pit observations were performed on a monthly basis over ten winter seasons from 1995 to 2004, at 15 study plots spaced at 100 m elevation intervals (1300–2700 m a.s.l.) in the mountainous forest of the Japanese Central Alps. We observed 514 pits with an average depth of 1.12 m. De...
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Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2018
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aog.2018.33 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0260305518000332 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/aog.2018.33 2024-06-09T07:38:31+00:00 Elevation-dependent behavior of hoar-prominent snowpack on forest slopes in the Japanese Central Alps based on a decade of observations Harada, Yusuke Wakabayashi, Ryuzo Inoue, Yoshikage 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aog.2018.33 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0260305518000332 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Annals of Glaciology volume 59, issue 77, page 77-86 ISSN 0260-3055 1727-5644 journal-article 2018 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2018.33 2024-05-15T13:17:56Z ABSTRACT Full snow-pit observations were performed on a monthly basis over ten winter seasons from 1995 to 2004, at 15 study plots spaced at 100 m elevation intervals (1300–2700 m a.s.l.) in the mountainous forest of the Japanese Central Alps. We observed 514 pits with an average depth of 1.12 m. Density measurements were taken in 2610 snow layers in total. Monthly trends indicate that snow depth has a strong linear correlation with elevation and that the mean density of snow cover has a moderate linear correlation with elevation in midwinter. Snow water equivalent can increase as a quadratic function of elevation in January and February. For this reason, the influence of overburden load and wind packing is elevation-dependent from January to February, a period when a facet-prominent snowpack existed on account of low snow and air temperatures. The density of depth hoar is greater at higher elevations than it is for rounded grains in midwinter due to densification. On forested slopes, with increasing elevation, snowfall frequency and the impact of wind upon snow increases while air temperature decreases, causing elevational variance in grain shapes. Article in Journal/Newspaper Annals of Glaciology Cambridge University Press Midwinter ENVELOPE(139.931,139.931,-66.690,-66.690) Annals of Glaciology 59 77 77 86 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
ABSTRACT Full snow-pit observations were performed on a monthly basis over ten winter seasons from 1995 to 2004, at 15 study plots spaced at 100 m elevation intervals (1300–2700 m a.s.l.) in the mountainous forest of the Japanese Central Alps. We observed 514 pits with an average depth of 1.12 m. Density measurements were taken in 2610 snow layers in total. Monthly trends indicate that snow depth has a strong linear correlation with elevation and that the mean density of snow cover has a moderate linear correlation with elevation in midwinter. Snow water equivalent can increase as a quadratic function of elevation in January and February. For this reason, the influence of overburden load and wind packing is elevation-dependent from January to February, a period when a facet-prominent snowpack existed on account of low snow and air temperatures. The density of depth hoar is greater at higher elevations than it is for rounded grains in midwinter due to densification. On forested slopes, with increasing elevation, snowfall frequency and the impact of wind upon snow increases while air temperature decreases, causing elevational variance in grain shapes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Harada, Yusuke Wakabayashi, Ryuzo Inoue, Yoshikage |
spellingShingle |
Harada, Yusuke Wakabayashi, Ryuzo Inoue, Yoshikage Elevation-dependent behavior of hoar-prominent snowpack on forest slopes in the Japanese Central Alps based on a decade of observations |
author_facet |
Harada, Yusuke Wakabayashi, Ryuzo Inoue, Yoshikage |
author_sort |
Harada, Yusuke |
title |
Elevation-dependent behavior of hoar-prominent snowpack on forest slopes in the Japanese Central Alps based on a decade of observations |
title_short |
Elevation-dependent behavior of hoar-prominent snowpack on forest slopes in the Japanese Central Alps based on a decade of observations |
title_full |
Elevation-dependent behavior of hoar-prominent snowpack on forest slopes in the Japanese Central Alps based on a decade of observations |
title_fullStr |
Elevation-dependent behavior of hoar-prominent snowpack on forest slopes in the Japanese Central Alps based on a decade of observations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Elevation-dependent behavior of hoar-prominent snowpack on forest slopes in the Japanese Central Alps based on a decade of observations |
title_sort |
elevation-dependent behavior of hoar-prominent snowpack on forest slopes in the japanese central alps based on a decade of observations |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aog.2018.33 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0260305518000332 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(139.931,139.931,-66.690,-66.690) |
geographic |
Midwinter |
geographic_facet |
Midwinter |
genre |
Annals of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Annals of Glaciology |
op_source |
Annals of Glaciology volume 59, issue 77, page 77-86 ISSN 0260-3055 1727-5644 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2018.33 |
container_title |
Annals of Glaciology |
container_volume |
59 |
container_issue |
77 |
container_start_page |
77 |
op_container_end_page |
86 |
_version_ |
1801373400686395392 |