A large wet snow avalanche cycle in West Greenland quantified using remote sensing and in situ observations
Abstract On 11 April 2016 we observed high slushflow and wet snow avalanche activity at the environmental monitoring station Kobbefjord in W-Greenland. Snow avalanches released as a result of snow wetting induced by rain-on-snow in combination with a strong rise in air temperature. We exploit high-r...
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ftrepec:oai:RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:97:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11069-019-03655-8 2023-05-15T15:04:22+02:00 A large wet snow avalanche cycle in West Greenland quantified using remote sensing and in situ observations Jakob Abermann Markus Eckerstorfer Eirik Malnes Birger Ulf Hansen http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-019-03655-8 unknown http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-019-03655-8 article ftrepec 2020-12-04T13:34:25Z Abstract On 11 April 2016 we observed high slushflow and wet snow avalanche activity at the environmental monitoring station Kobbefjord in W-Greenland. Snow avalanches released as a result of snow wetting induced by rain-on-snow in combination with a strong rise in air temperature. We exploit high-resolution satellite imagery covering pre- and post-event conditions for avalanche quantification and show that nearly 800 avalanches were triggered during this cycle. The nature of this extraordinary event is put into a longer temporal context by analysing several years of meteorological data and time-lapse imagery. We find that no event of similar size has occurred during the past 10 years of intense environmental monitoring in the study area. Meteorological reanalysis data reveal consistent relevant weather patterns for potential rain-on-snow events in the study area being warm fronts from Southwest with orographic lifting processes that triggered heavy precipitation. Avalanche, Slushflow, Arctic, Ecosystem effect, Remote sensing Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Greenland RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) Arctic Greenland Kobbefjord ENVELOPE(-51.527,-51.527,64.177,64.177) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) |
op_collection_id |
ftrepec |
language |
unknown |
description |
Abstract On 11 April 2016 we observed high slushflow and wet snow avalanche activity at the environmental monitoring station Kobbefjord in W-Greenland. Snow avalanches released as a result of snow wetting induced by rain-on-snow in combination with a strong rise in air temperature. We exploit high-resolution satellite imagery covering pre- and post-event conditions for avalanche quantification and show that nearly 800 avalanches were triggered during this cycle. The nature of this extraordinary event is put into a longer temporal context by analysing several years of meteorological data and time-lapse imagery. We find that no event of similar size has occurred during the past 10 years of intense environmental monitoring in the study area. Meteorological reanalysis data reveal consistent relevant weather patterns for potential rain-on-snow events in the study area being warm fronts from Southwest with orographic lifting processes that triggered heavy precipitation. Avalanche, Slushflow, Arctic, Ecosystem effect, Remote sensing |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jakob Abermann Markus Eckerstorfer Eirik Malnes Birger Ulf Hansen |
spellingShingle |
Jakob Abermann Markus Eckerstorfer Eirik Malnes Birger Ulf Hansen A large wet snow avalanche cycle in West Greenland quantified using remote sensing and in situ observations |
author_facet |
Jakob Abermann Markus Eckerstorfer Eirik Malnes Birger Ulf Hansen |
author_sort |
Jakob Abermann |
title |
A large wet snow avalanche cycle in West Greenland quantified using remote sensing and in situ observations |
title_short |
A large wet snow avalanche cycle in West Greenland quantified using remote sensing and in situ observations |
title_full |
A large wet snow avalanche cycle in West Greenland quantified using remote sensing and in situ observations |
title_fullStr |
A large wet snow avalanche cycle in West Greenland quantified using remote sensing and in situ observations |
title_full_unstemmed |
A large wet snow avalanche cycle in West Greenland quantified using remote sensing and in situ observations |
title_sort |
large wet snow avalanche cycle in west greenland quantified using remote sensing and in situ observations |
url |
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-019-03655-8 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-51.527,-51.527,64.177,64.177) |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland Kobbefjord |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland Kobbefjord |
genre |
Arctic Greenland |
genre_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
op_relation |
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-019-03655-8 |
_version_ |
1766336155554414592 |