Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types and patterns on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack
Synoptic weather patterns are investigated for their impact on energy fluxes driving melt of a marginal snowpack in the Snowy Mountains, southeast Australia. K -means clustering applied to ECMWF ERA-Interim data identified common synoptic types and patterns that were then associated with in situ sno...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:32b48ec2262f4f02b67087a1997903d1 2023-05-15T18:32:28+02:00 Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types and patterns on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack A. J. Schwartz H. A. McGowan A. Theobald N. Callow 2020-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2755-2020 https://doaj.org/article/32b48ec2262f4f02b67087a1997903d1 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/2755/2020/tc-14-2755-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-14-2755-2020 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/32b48ec2262f4f02b67087a1997903d1 The Cryosphere, Vol 14, Pp 2755-2774 (2020) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2755-2020 2022-12-31T09:35:29Z Synoptic weather patterns are investigated for their impact on energy fluxes driving melt of a marginal snowpack in the Snowy Mountains, southeast Australia. K -means clustering applied to ECMWF ERA-Interim data identified common synoptic types and patterns that were then associated with in situ snowpack energy flux measurements. The analysis showed that the largest contribution of energy to the snowpack occurred immediately prior to the passage of cold fronts through increased sensible heat flux as a result of warm air advection (WAA) ahead of the front. Shortwave radiation was found to be the dominant control on positive energy fluxes when individual synoptic weather types were examined. As a result, cloud cover related to each synoptic type was shown to be highly influential on the energy fluxes to the snowpack through its reduction of shortwave radiation and reflection/emission of longwave fluxes. As single-site energy balance measurements of the snowpack were used for this study, caution should be exercised before applying the results to the broader Australian Alps region. However, this research is an important step towards understanding changes in surface energy flux as a result of shifts to the global atmospheric circulation as anthropogenic climate change continues to impact marginal winter snowpacks. Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles The Cryosphere 14 8 2755 2774 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 A. J. Schwartz H. A. McGowan A. Theobald N. Callow Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types and patterns on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
Synoptic weather patterns are investigated for their impact on energy fluxes driving melt of a marginal snowpack in the Snowy Mountains, southeast Australia. K -means clustering applied to ECMWF ERA-Interim data identified common synoptic types and patterns that were then associated with in situ snowpack energy flux measurements. The analysis showed that the largest contribution of energy to the snowpack occurred immediately prior to the passage of cold fronts through increased sensible heat flux as a result of warm air advection (WAA) ahead of the front. Shortwave radiation was found to be the dominant control on positive energy fluxes when individual synoptic weather types were examined. As a result, cloud cover related to each synoptic type was shown to be highly influential on the energy fluxes to the snowpack through its reduction of shortwave radiation and reflection/emission of longwave fluxes. As single-site energy balance measurements of the snowpack were used for this study, caution should be exercised before applying the results to the broader Australian Alps region. However, this research is an important step towards understanding changes in surface energy flux as a result of shifts to the global atmospheric circulation as anthropogenic climate change continues to impact marginal winter snowpacks. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
A. J. Schwartz H. A. McGowan A. Theobald N. Callow |
author_facet |
A. J. Schwartz H. A. McGowan A. Theobald N. Callow |
author_sort |
A. J. Schwartz |
title |
Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types and patterns on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack |
title_short |
Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types and patterns on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack |
title_full |
Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types and patterns on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack |
title_fullStr |
Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types and patterns on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack |
title_full_unstemmed |
Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types and patterns on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack |
title_sort |
quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types and patterns on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2755-2020 https://doaj.org/article/32b48ec2262f4f02b67087a1997903d1 |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 14, Pp 2755-2774 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/2755/2020/tc-14-2755-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-14-2755-2020 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/32b48ec2262f4f02b67087a1997903d1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2755-2020 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
2755 |
op_container_end_page |
2774 |
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1766216576552402944 |