Can Saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the French Alps?
International audience Saharan dust deposits can turn snow-covered mountains into a spectacular orange landscape. When avalanches release, a formerly buried dust layer can become apparent, possibly marking the failure plane. This appearance may suggest a relation between avalanche release and the pr...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
HAL CCSD
2023
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-04082572 https://hal.science/hal-04082572/document https://hal.science/hal-04082572/file/tc-17-1755-2023.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023 |
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ftunigrenoble:oai:HAL:hal-04082572v1 |
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Open Polar |
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Université Grenoble Alpes: HAL |
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language |
English |
topic |
Snow Avalanche saharan dust [SDE]Environmental Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Snow Avalanche saharan dust [SDE]Environmental Sciences Dick, Oscar Viallon-Galinier, Léo Tuzet, François Hagenmuller, Pascal Fructus, Mathieu Reuter, Benjamin Lafaysse, Matthieu Dumont, Marie Can Saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the French Alps? |
topic_facet |
Snow Avalanche saharan dust [SDE]Environmental Sciences |
description |
International audience Saharan dust deposits can turn snow-covered mountains into a spectacular orange landscape. When avalanches release, a formerly buried dust layer can become apparent, possibly marking the failure plane. This appearance may suggest a relation between avalanche release and the previously deposited dust, which found mention among recreationists and avalanche professionals alike. While dust deposition affects the absorption of solar energy altering snowpack temperatures and melt rates, to date, there is no clear scientific evidence that dust deposition can significantly modify snow stability. Here we investigate, using an ensemble snow cover model, the impact of dust deposition on snow properties and mechanical stability by comparing simulations with and without dust deposition for synthetic and observed dust deposition events. The study focuses on two typical avalanche situations: artificial triggering on persistent weak layers and natural release of wet-snow avalanches. We study several situations with and without dust deposition and demonstrate how sensitive the impact of dust deposition is to the deposited dust mass, the slope aspect, the elevation and the meteorological conditions following the dust deposition. The additional energy absorbed by the dust layer speeds up warming and may advance surface wetting to ease the formation of a melt-freeze crust. If the crust is buried, the phenomenon of a strong temperature gradient close to the crust may promote the formation of persistent weak layers inside the snowpack. On the other hand, the melt-freeze crust may also lead to an increase in snowpack stability by redistributing the stress applied to weak layers buried below. Regarding wet-snow instability, we show that dust deposition can advance the onset of wet-snow avalanche activity by up to 1 month in spring, as hypothesized in previous studies. Thus, the impact of Saharan dust deposition on snowpack stability can be either neutral, positive or negative, depending on the topographical, ... |
author2 |
Centre d'Etudes de la Neige (CEN) Centre national de recherches météorologiques (CNRM) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP) Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP) Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG )-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) Direction des Opérations pour la Prévision (DIROP) Météo-France APR CNES MIOSOTIS ANR-16-CE01-0006,EBONI,Dépot, devenir et impact des impuretés absorbantes dans le manteau neigeux(2016) European Project: 949516,IVORI |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Dick, Oscar Viallon-Galinier, Léo Tuzet, François Hagenmuller, Pascal Fructus, Mathieu Reuter, Benjamin Lafaysse, Matthieu Dumont, Marie |
author_facet |
Dick, Oscar Viallon-Galinier, Léo Tuzet, François Hagenmuller, Pascal Fructus, Mathieu Reuter, Benjamin Lafaysse, Matthieu Dumont, Marie |
author_sort |
Dick, Oscar |
title |
Can Saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the French Alps? |
title_short |
Can Saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the French Alps? |
title_full |
Can Saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the French Alps? |
title_fullStr |
Can Saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the French Alps? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Can Saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the French Alps? |
title_sort |
can saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the french alps? |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-04082572 https://hal.science/hal-04082572/document https://hal.science/hal-04082572/file/tc-17-1755-2023.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023 |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_source |
ISSN: 1994-0424 EISSN: 1994-0416 The Cryosphere https://hal.science/hal-04082572 The Cryosphere, 2023, 17 (4), pp.1755-1773. ⟨10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement//949516/EU/IVORI/IVORI hal-04082572 https://hal.science/hal-04082572 https://hal.science/hal-04082572/document https://hal.science/hal-04082572/file/tc-17-1755-2023.pdf doi:10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1755 |
op_container_end_page |
1773 |
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1810483367884357632 |
spelling |
ftunigrenoble:oai:HAL:hal-04082572v1 2024-09-15T18:38:58+00:00 Can Saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the French Alps? Dick, Oscar Viallon-Galinier, Léo Tuzet, François Hagenmuller, Pascal Fructus, Mathieu Reuter, Benjamin Lafaysse, Matthieu Dumont, Marie Centre d'Etudes de la Neige (CEN) Centre national de recherches météorologiques (CNRM) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP) Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP) Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG )-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) Direction des Opérations pour la Prévision (DIROP) Météo-France APR CNES MIOSOTIS ANR-16-CE01-0006,EBONI,Dépot, devenir et impact des impuretés absorbantes dans le manteau neigeux(2016) European Project: 949516,IVORI 2023 https://hal.science/hal-04082572 https://hal.science/hal-04082572/document https://hal.science/hal-04082572/file/tc-17-1755-2023.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023 en eng HAL CCSD Copernicus info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement//949516/EU/IVORI/IVORI hal-04082572 https://hal.science/hal-04082572 https://hal.science/hal-04082572/document https://hal.science/hal-04082572/file/tc-17-1755-2023.pdf doi:10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess ISSN: 1994-0424 EISSN: 1994-0416 The Cryosphere https://hal.science/hal-04082572 The Cryosphere, 2023, 17 (4), pp.1755-1773. ⟨10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023⟩ Snow Avalanche saharan dust [SDE]Environmental Sciences info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2023 ftunigrenoble https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023 2024-07-08T23:46:07Z International audience Saharan dust deposits can turn snow-covered mountains into a spectacular orange landscape. When avalanches release, a formerly buried dust layer can become apparent, possibly marking the failure plane. This appearance may suggest a relation between avalanche release and the previously deposited dust, which found mention among recreationists and avalanche professionals alike. While dust deposition affects the absorption of solar energy altering snowpack temperatures and melt rates, to date, there is no clear scientific evidence that dust deposition can significantly modify snow stability. Here we investigate, using an ensemble snow cover model, the impact of dust deposition on snow properties and mechanical stability by comparing simulations with and without dust deposition for synthetic and observed dust deposition events. The study focuses on two typical avalanche situations: artificial triggering on persistent weak layers and natural release of wet-snow avalanches. We study several situations with and without dust deposition and demonstrate how sensitive the impact of dust deposition is to the deposited dust mass, the slope aspect, the elevation and the meteorological conditions following the dust deposition. The additional energy absorbed by the dust layer speeds up warming and may advance surface wetting to ease the formation of a melt-freeze crust. If the crust is buried, the phenomenon of a strong temperature gradient close to the crust may promote the formation of persistent weak layers inside the snowpack. On the other hand, the melt-freeze crust may also lead to an increase in snowpack stability by redistributing the stress applied to weak layers buried below. Regarding wet-snow instability, we show that dust deposition can advance the onset of wet-snow avalanche activity by up to 1 month in spring, as hypothesized in previous studies. Thus, the impact of Saharan dust deposition on snowpack stability can be either neutral, positive or negative, depending on the topographical, ... Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Université Grenoble Alpes: HAL The Cryosphere 17 4 1755 1773 |