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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Main Authors: Jakob Abermann, Markus Eckerstorfer, Eirik Malnes, Birger Ulf Hansen
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-019-03655-8
id ftrepec:oai:RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:97:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11069-019-03655-8
record_format openpolar
spelling 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
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