Global snow drought hot spots and characteristics
Snow plays a fundamental role in global water resources, climate, and biogeochemical processes; however, no global snow drought assessments currently exist. Changes in the duration and intensity of droughts can significantly impact ecosystems, food and water security, agriculture, hydropower, and th...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7443952 2023-05-15T15:10:11+02:00 Global snow drought hot spots and characteristics Huning, Laurie S. AghaKouchak, Amir 2020-08-18 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443952/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32747533 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915921117 en eng National Academy of Sciences http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443952/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32747533 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915921117 https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtmlPublished under the PNAS license (https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtml) . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915921117 2021-02-07T01:31:28Z Snow plays a fundamental role in global water resources, climate, and biogeochemical processes; however, no global snow drought assessments currently exist. Changes in the duration and intensity of droughts can significantly impact ecosystems, food and water security, agriculture, hydropower, and the socioeconomics of a region. We characterize the duration and intensity of snow droughts (snow water equivalent deficits) worldwide and differences in their distributions over 1980 to 2018. We find that snow droughts became more prevalent, intensified, and lengthened across the western United States (WUS). Eastern Russia, Europe, and the WUS emerged as hot spots for snow droughts, experiencing ∼2, 16, and 28% longer snow drought durations, respectively, in the latter half of 1980 to 2018. In this second half of the record, these regions exhibited a higher probability (relative to the first half of the record) of having a snow drought exceed the average intensity from the first period by 3, 4, and 15%. The Hindu Kush and Central Asia, extratropical Andes, greater Himalayas, and Patagonia, however, experienced decreases (percent changes) in the average snow drought duration (−4, −7, −8, and −16%, respectively). Although we do not attempt to separate natural and human influences with a detailed attribution analysis, we discuss some relevant physical processes (e.g., Arctic amplification and polar vortex movement) that likely contribute to observed changes in snow drought characteristics. We also demonstrate how our framework can facilitate drought monitoring and assessment by examining two snow deficits that posed large socioeconomic challenges in the WUS (2014/2015) and Afghanistan (2017/2018). Text Arctic PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Patagonia Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 33 19753 19759 |
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Physical Sciences Huning, Laurie S. AghaKouchak, Amir Global snow drought hot spots and characteristics |
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Physical Sciences |
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Snow plays a fundamental role in global water resources, climate, and biogeochemical processes; however, no global snow drought assessments currently exist. Changes in the duration and intensity of droughts can significantly impact ecosystems, food and water security, agriculture, hydropower, and the socioeconomics of a region. We characterize the duration and intensity of snow droughts (snow water equivalent deficits) worldwide and differences in their distributions over 1980 to 2018. We find that snow droughts became more prevalent, intensified, and lengthened across the western United States (WUS). Eastern Russia, Europe, and the WUS emerged as hot spots for snow droughts, experiencing ∼2, 16, and 28% longer snow drought durations, respectively, in the latter half of 1980 to 2018. In this second half of the record, these regions exhibited a higher probability (relative to the first half of the record) of having a snow drought exceed the average intensity from the first period by 3, 4, and 15%. The Hindu Kush and Central Asia, extratropical Andes, greater Himalayas, and Patagonia, however, experienced decreases (percent changes) in the average snow drought duration (−4, −7, −8, and −16%, respectively). Although we do not attempt to separate natural and human influences with a detailed attribution analysis, we discuss some relevant physical processes (e.g., Arctic amplification and polar vortex movement) that likely contribute to observed changes in snow drought characteristics. We also demonstrate how our framework can facilitate drought monitoring and assessment by examining two snow deficits that posed large socioeconomic challenges in the WUS (2014/2015) and Afghanistan (2017/2018). |
format |
Text |
author |
Huning, Laurie S. AghaKouchak, Amir |
author_facet |
Huning, Laurie S. AghaKouchak, Amir |
author_sort |
Huning, Laurie S. |
title |
Global snow drought hot spots and characteristics |
title_short |
Global snow drought hot spots and characteristics |
title_full |
Global snow drought hot spots and characteristics |
title_fullStr |
Global snow drought hot spots and characteristics |
title_full_unstemmed |
Global snow drought hot spots and characteristics |
title_sort |
global snow drought hot spots and characteristics |
publisher |
National Academy of Sciences |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443952/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32747533 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915921117 |
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Arctic Patagonia |
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Arctic Patagonia |
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Arctic |
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Arctic |
op_source |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7443952/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32747533 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915921117 |
op_rights |
https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtmlPublished under the PNAS license (https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtml) . |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915921117 |
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
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117 |
container_issue |
33 |
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19753 |
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19759 |
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