a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Snowmelt metrics Depletion curves Western hemlock-true fir ecotone Generalized least squares regression Trend power analysis PDO/ENSO Pacific Northwest Snow cover pattern and persistence have important implications for planetary energy balance, climate sensitivity to forcings, and vegetation structure, function, and composition. Variability in snow cover within m...

[1] We explore pan-Arctic climate connectivity by examining historical time series of satellite-based measurements of Eurasian snow cover extent and of observed Canadian snow water equivalent (SWE) and freshwater discharge, with a focus on the Churchill River Basin of Labrador and the Chesterfield Inlet Basin of Nunavut. Analysis of the data reveals statistically significant positive (negative)...

According to recent Studies, about 60 percent of surface waters and 57 Percent ground waters are located in snowy zones in Iran. In most areas of northern hemisphere and alpine environment areas, snow melt lead to the maximum instantaneous flow rate and is an important part of annual discharge. The present study investigated the effect of snowmelt on the surface waters and ground waters in B...

A detailed evaluation of climate conditions in a small alpine watershed, typical of much of the southern Sierra Nevada, is presented for the 1986 water year. Measurements of snowfall, meteorological and snow cover conditions, and snow cover ablation are used to characterize the climate at four locations in the watershed during that snow season. Data from these locations are then combined into t...

The strength of snow-albedo feedback (SAF) in transient climate change simulations of the Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is generally determined by the surfacealbedo decrease associated with a loss of snow cover rather than the reduction in snow albedo due to snow metamorphosis in a warming climate. The large intermodel spread in SAF strength is likewise attr...

The performance of a new algorithm for binary snow cover monitoring based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite images at 250 m resolution is validated using snow cover maps (SCA) based on Landsat 7 ETM+ images and in situ snow depth measurements from ground stations in selected test sites in Central Europe. The advantages of the proposed algorithm are the improved ...

High-resolution snow distributions are essential for studying cold regions. However, the temporal and spatial resolutions of current remote sensing snow maps remain limited. Remotely sensed snow cover fraction (SCF) data only provide quantitative descriptions of snow area proportions and do not provide information on subgrid-scale snow locations. We present a downscaling method based on simulat...

The modern global warming trends require permanent monitoring of the atmospheric and underlying surface parameters on a global scale. This can be achieved only using satellite observations (preferably, from a geostationary orbit). One of key parameters to monitor is the snow and ice global cover and also snow/ice albedo. This is due to the fact that snow and ice are highly reflective surfaces a...

Vegetation structure and density affect the dynamics of snow accumulation and ablation. Vegetation also affects our ability to estimate snow-covered area accurately from satellite-based sensors. The objective of this case study is to demonstrate how the angular pattern of reflectance from vegetation over snow can provide information on forest cover density. Imagery from the Multi-angle Imaging ...

We investigated snow cover dynamics using time series of moderate (MODIS) to high (SPOT-4/5, Landsat-8) spatial resolution satellite imagery in a 3700 km2 region of the southwestern French Alps. Our study was carried out in the context of the SPOT (Take 5) Experiment initiated by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), with the aim of exploring the utility of high spatial and temporal re...