Simulating Snow Redistribution and its Effect on Ground Surface Temperature at a High‐Arctic Site on Svalbard
In high-latitude and mountain regions, local processes such as redistribution by wind, snow metamorphism, and percolation of water produce a complex spatial distribution of snow depths and snow densities. With its strong control on the ground thermal regime, this snow distribution has pronounced eff...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface |
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ftoslouniv:oai:www.duo.uio.no:10852/91675 2023-05-15T14:28:04+02:00 Simulating Snow Redistribution and its Effect on Ground Surface Temperature at a High‐Arctic Site on Svalbard Zweigel, Robin Benjamin Westermann, Sebastian Nitzbon, Jan Langer, M Boike, Julia Etzelmüller, Bernd Schuler, Thomas Vikhamar 2021-05-05T14:20:10Z http://hdl.handle.net/10852/91675 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-94244 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JF005673 EN eng UIO/UiO/GEO103920 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-94244 Zweigel, Robin Benjamin Westermann, Sebastian Nitzbon, Jan Langer, M Boike, Julia Etzelmüller, Bernd Schuler, Thomas Vikhamar . Simulating Snow Redistribution and its Effect on Ground Surface Temperature at a High‐Arctic Site on Svalbard. Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR): Earth Surface. 2021, 126(3) http://hdl.handle.net/10852/91675 1908235 info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.jtitle=Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR): Earth Surface&rft.volume=126&rft.spage=&rft.date=2021 Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR): Earth Surface 126 3 21 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JF005673 URN:NBN:no-94244 Fulltext https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/91675/1/JGR%2BEarth%2BSurface%2B-%2B2021%2B-%2BZweigel%2B-%2BSimulating%2BSnow%2BRedistribution%2Band%2Bits%2BEffect%2Bon%2BGround%2BSurface%2BTemperature%2Bat%2Ba.pdf Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ CC-BY-NC-ND 2169-9003 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed PublishedVersion 2021 ftoslouniv https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JF005673 2022-03-02T23:33:49Z In high-latitude and mountain regions, local processes such as redistribution by wind, snow metamorphism, and percolation of water produce a complex spatial distribution of snow depths and snow densities. With its strong control on the ground thermal regime, this snow distribution has pronounced effects on ground temperatures at small spatial scales which are typically not resolved by land surface models (LSMs). This limits our ability to simulate the local impacts of climate change on, for example, vegetation and permafrost. Here, we present a tiling approach combining the CryoGrid permafrost model with snow microphysics parametrizations from the CROCUS snow scheme to account for subgrid lateral exchange of snow and water in a process-based way. We demonstrate that a simple setup with three coupled tiles, each representing a different snow accumulation class with a specific topographic setting, can reproduce the observed spread of winter-time ground surface temperatures (GST) and end-of-season snow distribution for a high-Arctic site on Svalbard. For the 3-year study period, the three-tile simulations showed substantial improvement compared to traditional single-tile simulations which naturally cannot account for subgrid variability. Among others, the representation of the warmest and coldest 5% of the observed GST distribution was improved by 1–2°C, while still capturing the average of the distribution. The simulations also reveal positive mean annual GSTs at the locations receiving the greatest snow cover. This could be an indication for the onset of localized permafrost degradation which would be obscured in single-tile simulations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Climate change permafrost Svalbard Universitet i Oslo: Digitale utgivelser ved UiO (DUO) Arctic Svalbard Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 126 3 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Universitet i Oslo: Digitale utgivelser ved UiO (DUO) |
op_collection_id |
ftoslouniv |
language |
English |
description |
In high-latitude and mountain regions, local processes such as redistribution by wind, snow metamorphism, and percolation of water produce a complex spatial distribution of snow depths and snow densities. With its strong control on the ground thermal regime, this snow distribution has pronounced effects on ground temperatures at small spatial scales which are typically not resolved by land surface models (LSMs). This limits our ability to simulate the local impacts of climate change on, for example, vegetation and permafrost. Here, we present a tiling approach combining the CryoGrid permafrost model with snow microphysics parametrizations from the CROCUS snow scheme to account for subgrid lateral exchange of snow and water in a process-based way. We demonstrate that a simple setup with three coupled tiles, each representing a different snow accumulation class with a specific topographic setting, can reproduce the observed spread of winter-time ground surface temperatures (GST) and end-of-season snow distribution for a high-Arctic site on Svalbard. For the 3-year study period, the three-tile simulations showed substantial improvement compared to traditional single-tile simulations which naturally cannot account for subgrid variability. Among others, the representation of the warmest and coldest 5% of the observed GST distribution was improved by 1–2°C, while still capturing the average of the distribution. The simulations also reveal positive mean annual GSTs at the locations receiving the greatest snow cover. This could be an indication for the onset of localized permafrost degradation which would be obscured in single-tile simulations. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Zweigel, Robin Benjamin Westermann, Sebastian Nitzbon, Jan Langer, M Boike, Julia Etzelmüller, Bernd Schuler, Thomas Vikhamar |
spellingShingle |
Zweigel, Robin Benjamin Westermann, Sebastian Nitzbon, Jan Langer, M Boike, Julia Etzelmüller, Bernd Schuler, Thomas Vikhamar Simulating Snow Redistribution and its Effect on Ground Surface Temperature at a High‐Arctic Site on Svalbard |
author_facet |
Zweigel, Robin Benjamin Westermann, Sebastian Nitzbon, Jan Langer, M Boike, Julia Etzelmüller, Bernd Schuler, Thomas Vikhamar |
author_sort |
Zweigel, Robin Benjamin |
title |
Simulating Snow Redistribution and its Effect on Ground Surface Temperature at a High‐Arctic Site on Svalbard |
title_short |
Simulating Snow Redistribution and its Effect on Ground Surface Temperature at a High‐Arctic Site on Svalbard |
title_full |
Simulating Snow Redistribution and its Effect on Ground Surface Temperature at a High‐Arctic Site on Svalbard |
title_fullStr |
Simulating Snow Redistribution and its Effect on Ground Surface Temperature at a High‐Arctic Site on Svalbard |
title_full_unstemmed |
Simulating Snow Redistribution and its Effect on Ground Surface Temperature at a High‐Arctic Site on Svalbard |
title_sort |
simulating snow redistribution and its effect on ground surface temperature at a high‐arctic site on svalbard |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10852/91675 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-94244 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JF005673 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Climate change permafrost Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Climate change permafrost Svalbard |
op_source |
2169-9003 |
op_relation |
UIO/UiO/GEO103920 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-94244 Zweigel, Robin Benjamin Westermann, Sebastian Nitzbon, Jan Langer, M Boike, Julia Etzelmüller, Bernd Schuler, Thomas Vikhamar . Simulating Snow Redistribution and its Effect on Ground Surface Temperature at a High‐Arctic Site on Svalbard. Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR): Earth Surface. 2021, 126(3) http://hdl.handle.net/10852/91675 1908235 info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.jtitle=Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR): Earth Surface&rft.volume=126&rft.spage=&rft.date=2021 Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR): Earth Surface 126 3 21 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JF005673 URN:NBN:no-94244 Fulltext https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/91675/1/JGR%2BEarth%2BSurface%2B-%2B2021%2B-%2BZweigel%2B-%2BSimulating%2BSnow%2BRedistribution%2Band%2Bits%2BEffect%2Bon%2BGround%2BSurface%2BTemperature%2Bat%2Ba.pdf |
op_rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JF005673 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface |
container_volume |
126 |
container_issue |
3 |
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1766302193372102656 |