Daily evolution in dust and black carbon content, snow grain size, and snow albedo during snowmelt, Rocky Mountains, Colorado
Light absorbing impurities (LAI) initiate powerful snow albedo feedbacks, yet due to a scarcity of observations and measurements, LAI radiative forcing is often neglected or poorly constrained in climate and hydrological models. To support physically-based modeling of LAI processes, daily measuremen...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2017-02-01
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| Series: | Journal of Glaciology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143016001258/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1811155859823132672 |
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| author | S. McKENZIE SKILES THOMAS PAINTER |
| author_facet | S. McKENZIE SKILES THOMAS PAINTER |
| author_sort | S. McKENZIE SKILES |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Light absorbing impurities (LAI) initiate powerful snow albedo feedbacks, yet due to a scarcity of observations and measurements, LAI radiative forcing is often neglected or poorly constrained in climate and hydrological models. To support physically-based modeling of LAI processes, daily measurements of dust and black carbon (BC) stratigraphy, optical grain size, snow density and spectral albedo were collected over the 2013 ablation season in the Rocky Mountains, CO. Surface impurity concentrations exhibited a wide range of values (0.02–6.0 mg g−1 pptw) with 98% of mass being deposited by three episodic dust events in April. Even minor dust loading initiated albedo decline, and the negative relationship between dust concentrations and albedo was log-linear. As melt progressed, individual dust layers coalesced and emerged at the snow surface, with minimal mass loss to meltwater scavenging. The observations show that the convergence of dust layers at the surface reduced albedo to 0.3 and snow depth declined ~50% faster than other years with similar depth but less dust. The rapid melt led to an unexpected reduction in both grain size and density in uppermost surface layers. BC concentrations co-varied with dust concentrations but were several orders of magnitude lower (<1–20 ppb). |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:41:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5b01e34b618746ecb07c26f3c03d16b8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:41:43Z |
| publishDate | 2017-02-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Glaciology |
| spelling | doaj.art-5b01e34b618746ecb07c26f3c03d16b82023-03-09T12:40:19ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Glaciology0022-14301727-56522017-02-016311813210.1017/jog.2016.125Daily evolution in dust and black carbon content, snow grain size, and snow albedo during snowmelt, Rocky Mountains, ColoradoS. McKENZIE SKILES0THOMAS PAINTER1Department of Earth Science, Utah Valley University, Orem, UT, USA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USALight absorbing impurities (LAI) initiate powerful snow albedo feedbacks, yet due to a scarcity of observations and measurements, LAI radiative forcing is often neglected or poorly constrained in climate and hydrological models. To support physically-based modeling of LAI processes, daily measurements of dust and black carbon (BC) stratigraphy, optical grain size, snow density and spectral albedo were collected over the 2013 ablation season in the Rocky Mountains, CO. Surface impurity concentrations exhibited a wide range of values (0.02–6.0 mg g−1 pptw) with 98% of mass being deposited by three episodic dust events in April. Even minor dust loading initiated albedo decline, and the negative relationship between dust concentrations and albedo was log-linear. As melt progressed, individual dust layers coalesced and emerged at the snow surface, with minimal mass loss to meltwater scavenging. The observations show that the convergence of dust layers at the surface reduced albedo to 0.3 and snow depth declined ~50% faster than other years with similar depth but less dust. The rapid melt led to an unexpected reduction in both grain size and density in uppermost surface layers. BC concentrations co-varied with dust concentrations but were several orders of magnitude lower (<1–20 ppb).https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143016001258/type/journal_articleenergy balancemelt surfacesnowsnow/ice surface processes |
| spellingShingle | S. McKENZIE SKILES THOMAS PAINTER Daily evolution in dust and black carbon content, snow grain size, and snow albedo during snowmelt, Rocky Mountains, Colorado Journal of Glaciology energy balance melt surface snow snow/ice surface processes |
| title | Daily evolution in dust and black carbon content, snow grain size, and snow albedo during snowmelt, Rocky Mountains, Colorado |
| title_full | Daily evolution in dust and black carbon content, snow grain size, and snow albedo during snowmelt, Rocky Mountains, Colorado |
| title_fullStr | Daily evolution in dust and black carbon content, snow grain size, and snow albedo during snowmelt, Rocky Mountains, Colorado |
| title_full_unstemmed | Daily evolution in dust and black carbon content, snow grain size, and snow albedo during snowmelt, Rocky Mountains, Colorado |
| title_short | Daily evolution in dust and black carbon content, snow grain size, and snow albedo during snowmelt, Rocky Mountains, Colorado |
| title_sort | daily evolution in dust and black carbon content snow grain size and snow albedo during snowmelt rocky mountains colorado |
| topic | energy balance melt surface snow snow/ice surface processes |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143016001258/type/journal_article |
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