Snow Phenology and Hydrologic Timing in the Yukon River Basin, AK, USA
The Yukon River basin encompasses over 832,000 km 2 of boreal Arctic Alaska and northwest Canada, providing a major transportation corridor and multiple natural resources to regional communities. The river seasonal hydrology is defined by a long winter frozen season and a snowmelt-driven spring floo...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:8903b7e5d73d4969b7e180268415f706 2023-05-15T15:14:41+02:00 Snow Phenology and Hydrologic Timing in the Yukon River Basin, AK, USA Caleb G. Pan Peter B. Kirchner John S. Kimball Jinyang Du Michael A. Rawlins 2021-06-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13122284 https://doaj.org/article/8903b7e5d73d4969b7e180268415f706 EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/12/2284 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs13122284 2072-4292 https://doaj.org/article/8903b7e5d73d4969b7e180268415f706 Remote Sensing, Vol 13, Iss 2284, p 2284 (2021) snow cover snowmelt passive microwave streamflow Alaska Science Q article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13122284 2022-12-31T16:17:47Z The Yukon River basin encompasses over 832,000 km 2 of boreal Arctic Alaska and northwest Canada, providing a major transportation corridor and multiple natural resources to regional communities. The river seasonal hydrology is defined by a long winter frozen season and a snowmelt-driven spring flood pulse. Capabilities for accurate monitoring and forecasting of the annual spring freshet and river ice breakup (RIB) in the Yukon and other northern rivers is limited, but critical for understanding hydrologic processes related to snow, and for assessing flood-related risks to regional communities. We developed a regional snow phenology record using satellite passive microwave remote sensing to elucidate interactions between the timing of upland snowmelt and the downstream spring flood pulse and RIB in the Yukon. The seasonal snow metrics included annual Main Melt Onset Date (MMOD), Snowoff (SO) and Snowmelt Duration (SMD) derived from multifrequency (18.7 and 36.5 GHz) daily brightness temperatures and a physically-based Gradient Ratio Polarization (GRP) retrieval algorithm. The resulting snow phenology record extends over a 29-year period (1988–2016) with 6.25 km grid resolution. The MMOD retrievals showed good agreement with similar snow metrics derived from in situ weather station measurements of snowpack water equivalence (r = 0.48, bias = −3.63 days) and surface air temperatures (r = 0.69, bias = 1 day). The MMOD and SO impact on the spring freshet was investigated by comparing areal quantiles of the remotely sensed snow metrics with measured streamflow quantiles over selected sub-basins. The SO 50% quantile showed the strongest (p < 0.1) correspondence with the measured spring flood pulse at Stevens Village (r = 0.71) and Pilot (r = 0.63) river gaging stations, representing two major Yukon sub-basins. MMOD quantiles indicating 20% and 50% of a catchment under active snowmelt corresponded favorably with downstream RIB (r = 0.61) from 19 river observation stations spanning a range of Yukon sub-basins; these ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Yukon river Alaska Yukon Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Yukon Canada Remote Sensing 13 12 2284 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
snow cover snowmelt passive microwave streamflow Alaska Science Q |
spellingShingle |
snow cover snowmelt passive microwave streamflow Alaska Science Q Caleb G. Pan Peter B. Kirchner John S. Kimball Jinyang Du Michael A. Rawlins Snow Phenology and Hydrologic Timing in the Yukon River Basin, AK, USA |
topic_facet |
snow cover snowmelt passive microwave streamflow Alaska Science Q |
description |
The Yukon River basin encompasses over 832,000 km 2 of boreal Arctic Alaska and northwest Canada, providing a major transportation corridor and multiple natural resources to regional communities. The river seasonal hydrology is defined by a long winter frozen season and a snowmelt-driven spring flood pulse. Capabilities for accurate monitoring and forecasting of the annual spring freshet and river ice breakup (RIB) in the Yukon and other northern rivers is limited, but critical for understanding hydrologic processes related to snow, and for assessing flood-related risks to regional communities. We developed a regional snow phenology record using satellite passive microwave remote sensing to elucidate interactions between the timing of upland snowmelt and the downstream spring flood pulse and RIB in the Yukon. The seasonal snow metrics included annual Main Melt Onset Date (MMOD), Snowoff (SO) and Snowmelt Duration (SMD) derived from multifrequency (18.7 and 36.5 GHz) daily brightness temperatures and a physically-based Gradient Ratio Polarization (GRP) retrieval algorithm. The resulting snow phenology record extends over a 29-year period (1988–2016) with 6.25 km grid resolution. The MMOD retrievals showed good agreement with similar snow metrics derived from in situ weather station measurements of snowpack water equivalence (r = 0.48, bias = −3.63 days) and surface air temperatures (r = 0.69, bias = 1 day). The MMOD and SO impact on the spring freshet was investigated by comparing areal quantiles of the remotely sensed snow metrics with measured streamflow quantiles over selected sub-basins. The SO 50% quantile showed the strongest (p < 0.1) correspondence with the measured spring flood pulse at Stevens Village (r = 0.71) and Pilot (r = 0.63) river gaging stations, representing two major Yukon sub-basins. MMOD quantiles indicating 20% and 50% of a catchment under active snowmelt corresponded favorably with downstream RIB (r = 0.61) from 19 river observation stations spanning a range of Yukon sub-basins; these ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Caleb G. Pan Peter B. Kirchner John S. Kimball Jinyang Du Michael A. Rawlins |
author_facet |
Caleb G. Pan Peter B. Kirchner John S. Kimball Jinyang Du Michael A. Rawlins |
author_sort |
Caleb G. Pan |
title |
Snow Phenology and Hydrologic Timing in the Yukon River Basin, AK, USA |
title_short |
Snow Phenology and Hydrologic Timing in the Yukon River Basin, AK, USA |
title_full |
Snow Phenology and Hydrologic Timing in the Yukon River Basin, AK, USA |
title_fullStr |
Snow Phenology and Hydrologic Timing in the Yukon River Basin, AK, USA |
title_full_unstemmed |
Snow Phenology and Hydrologic Timing in the Yukon River Basin, AK, USA |
title_sort |
snow phenology and hydrologic timing in the yukon river basin, ak, usa |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13122284 https://doaj.org/article/8903b7e5d73d4969b7e180268415f706 |
geographic |
Arctic Yukon Canada |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Yukon Canada |
genre |
Arctic Yukon river Alaska Yukon |
genre_facet |
Arctic Yukon river Alaska Yukon |
op_source |
Remote Sensing, Vol 13, Iss 2284, p 2284 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/12/2284 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs13122284 2072-4292 https://doaj.org/article/8903b7e5d73d4969b7e180268415f706 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13122284 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
2284 |
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1766345105230266368 |