How much snow falls in the world's mountains? A first look at mountain snowfall estimates in A-train observations and reanalyses
CloudSat estimates that 1773 km3 of snow falls, on average, each year over the world's mountains. This amounts to 5 % of the global snowfall accumulations. This study synthetizes mountain snowfall estimates over the four continents containing mountains (Eurasia, North America, South America and...
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:d9b146e751c841f49e3eefcb7a3cdefc 2023-05-15T18:32:18+02:00 How much snow falls in the world's mountains? A first look at mountain snowfall estimates in A-train observations and reanalyses A. S. Daloz M. Mateling T. L'Ecuyer M. Kulie N. B. Wood M. Durand M. Wrzesien C. W. Stjern A. P. Dimri 2020-09-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3195-2020 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/3195/2020/tc-14-3195-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/article/d9b146e751c841f49e3eefcb7a3cdefc en eng Copernicus Publications doi:10.5194/tc-14-3195-2020 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/3195/2020/tc-14-3195-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/article/d9b146e751c841f49e3eefcb7a3cdefc undefined The Cryosphere, Vol 14, Pp 3195-3207 (2020) geo info Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2020 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3195-2020 2023-01-22T19:27:48Z CloudSat estimates that 1773 km3 of snow falls, on average, each year over the world's mountains. This amounts to 5 % of the global snowfall accumulations. This study synthetizes mountain snowfall estimates over the four continents containing mountains (Eurasia, North America, South America and Africa), comparing snowfall estimates from a new satellite cloud-radar-based dataset to those from four widely used reanalyses: Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA), MERRA-2, Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55), and European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim). Globally, the fraction of snow that falls in the world's mountains is very similar between all these independent datasets (4 %–5 %), providing confidence in this estimate. The fraction of snow that falls in the mountains compared to the continent as a whole is also very similar between the different datasets. However, the total of snow that falls globally and over each continent – the critical factor governing freshwater availability in these regions – varies widely between datasets. The consensus in fractions and the dissimilarities in magnitude could indicate that large-scale forcings may be similar in the five datasets, while local orographic enhancements at smaller scales may not be captured. This may have significant implications for our ability to diagnose regional trends in snowfall and its impacts on snowpack in rapidly evolving alpine environments. Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Unknown Merra ENVELOPE(12.615,12.615,65.816,65.816) The Cryosphere 14 9 3195 3207 |
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geo info A. S. Daloz M. Mateling T. L'Ecuyer M. Kulie N. B. Wood M. Durand M. Wrzesien C. W. Stjern A. P. Dimri How much snow falls in the world's mountains? A first look at mountain snowfall estimates in A-train observations and reanalyses |
topic_facet |
geo info |
description |
CloudSat estimates that 1773 km3 of snow falls, on average, each year over the world's mountains. This amounts to 5 % of the global snowfall accumulations. This study synthetizes mountain snowfall estimates over the four continents containing mountains (Eurasia, North America, South America and Africa), comparing snowfall estimates from a new satellite cloud-radar-based dataset to those from four widely used reanalyses: Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA), MERRA-2, Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55), and European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim). Globally, the fraction of snow that falls in the world's mountains is very similar between all these independent datasets (4 %–5 %), providing confidence in this estimate. The fraction of snow that falls in the mountains compared to the continent as a whole is also very similar between the different datasets. However, the total of snow that falls globally and over each continent – the critical factor governing freshwater availability in these regions – varies widely between datasets. The consensus in fractions and the dissimilarities in magnitude could indicate that large-scale forcings may be similar in the five datasets, while local orographic enhancements at smaller scales may not be captured. This may have significant implications for our ability to diagnose regional trends in snowfall and its impacts on snowpack in rapidly evolving alpine environments. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
A. S. Daloz M. Mateling T. L'Ecuyer M. Kulie N. B. Wood M. Durand M. Wrzesien C. W. Stjern A. P. Dimri |
author_facet |
A. S. Daloz M. Mateling T. L'Ecuyer M. Kulie N. B. Wood M. Durand M. Wrzesien C. W. Stjern A. P. Dimri |
author_sort |
A. S. Daloz |
title |
How much snow falls in the world's mountains? A first look at mountain snowfall estimates in A-train observations and reanalyses |
title_short |
How much snow falls in the world's mountains? A first look at mountain snowfall estimates in A-train observations and reanalyses |
title_full |
How much snow falls in the world's mountains? A first look at mountain snowfall estimates in A-train observations and reanalyses |
title_fullStr |
How much snow falls in the world's mountains? A first look at mountain snowfall estimates in A-train observations and reanalyses |
title_full_unstemmed |
How much snow falls in the world's mountains? A first look at mountain snowfall estimates in A-train observations and reanalyses |
title_sort |
how much snow falls in the world's mountains? a first look at mountain snowfall estimates in a-train observations and reanalyses |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3195-2020 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/3195/2020/tc-14-3195-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/article/d9b146e751c841f49e3eefcb7a3cdefc |
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ENVELOPE(12.615,12.615,65.816,65.816) |
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Merra |
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Merra |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 14, Pp 3195-3207 (2020) |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-14-3195-2020 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/3195/2020/tc-14-3195-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/article/d9b146e751c841f49e3eefcb7a3cdefc |
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undefined |
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https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3195-2020 |
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The Cryosphere |
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14 |
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3195 |
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3207 |
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