Snow albedo feedback is one of the most crucial feedback processes that control equilibrium climate sensitivity, which is a central parameter for better prediction of future climate change. However, persistent large discrepancies and uncertainties are found in snow albedo feedback estimations. Remotely sensed snow cover products, atmospheric reanalysis data and radiative kernel data are used in...

Using five-year (2001–2005) ground-observed snow depth and cloud cover data at 20 climatic stations in Northern Xinjiang, China, this study: 1) evaluates the accuracy of the 8-day snow cover product (MOD10A2) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)/Terra satellite, 2) generates a new snow cover time series by separating the MODIS cloud masked pixels as snow and land, and ...

The effect of anthropogenic black carbon (BC) aerosol on snow is of enduring interest due to its consequences for climate forcing. Until now, too little attention has been focused on BC's size in snow, an important parameter affecting BC light absorption in snow. Here we present first observations of this parameter, revealing that BC can be shifted to larger sizes in snow than are typically see...

Snow cover is a layer of snow on the earth’s surface, which is mainly results from snowfalls. The snow cover can be temporary, when a snow melts during several hours or days after its formation, and it can be stable, when it remains for the whole winter or with short interruptions. The snow cover formation on the globe is determined (conditioned) by the geographical zonality, surface relief, an...

Terrestrial laser scanning was used to measure snow thickness changes (perpendicular to the surface) in a rock face. The aim was to investigate the accumulation and redistribution of snow in extremely steep terrain (>60). The north-east face of the Chlein Schiahorn in the region of Davos in eastern Switzerland was scanned before and several times after a snowfall event. A summer scan without sn...

In this study, we inter-compared observed Ku-, Xand C-band microwave backscatter from saline 14 cm, 8 cm, and 4 cm snow covers on smooth first-year sea ice. A Ku-, Xand C-band surface-borne polarimetric microwave scatterometer system was used to measure fully-polarimetric backscatter from the three snow covers, near-coincident with corresponding in situ snow thermophysical measurements. The stu...

The seasonal snow cover of the Tibetan Plateau exerts a profound environmental influence both regionally and globally. Daily observations of snow depth at 37 meteorological stations in Tibet and MODIS eight-day snow products (MOD10A2) during the period 2001–2015 are analyzed with respect to the frequency and spatial distribution of snow cover for each season and for various altitude ranges. The...

The Tienshan Urumqi Glacier No.1 (TUG1) usually shows "grey" surfaces in summers. Besides known regional warming, what should be responsible for largely reducing its surface albedo and making it look "grey"? A field campaign was conducted on the TUG1 on a selected cloud-free day of 2013 after a snow fall at night. Fresh and aged snow samples were collected in the field, and snow densities, grai...

[1] Measurements of snow using a high-resolution micropenetrometer can be used to discriminate between different snow types; in lower-density snow the signal is sensitive to microstructure, and micromechanical properties can be estimated. Although a physics-based snow penetration theory was first developed almost a decade ago, since that time the majority of studies using snow micropenetrometer...