We appreciate the comments on our recent study (1) from Wang et al. (2). Our study showed that the start of the growing season (SOS), derived from analysis of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), continued to advance in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) from 1982 to 2011. Wang et al. (2) agreed with this conclusion but stated that the SOS advancement rate could be overestimated after compariso...

The snow-masking effect of vegetation exerts strong control on albedo in northern high latitude ecosystems. Large-scale changes in the distribution and stature of vegetation in this region will thus have important feedbacks to climate. The snow-albedo feedback is controlled largely by the contrast between snow-covered and snow-free albedo (Δα), which influences predictions of future warming in ...

[1] This paper analyzes the main spatial patterns in the dates of snow cover disappearance variability over northern latitudes between 1988 and 2003. The dates of snow cover disappearance were calculated using satellite passive microwave data from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager. Spatial and temporal patterns were obtained using principal components analysis in the S mode. We identified eig...

Recent work in seasonally snow covered ecosystems has identified thawed soil and high levels of heterotrophic activity throughout the winter under consistent snow cover. We performed measurements during the winter of 1994 to determine how the depth and timing of seasonal snow cover affect soil microbial populations, surface water NO loss during snowmelt, and plant N availability early in the gr...

a r t i c l e i n f o A multitemporal method to map snow cover in mountainous terrain is proposed to guide Landsat climate data record (CDR) development. The Landsat image archive including MSS, TM, and ETM + imagery was used to construct a prototype Landsat snow cover CDR for the interior northwestern United States. Landsat snow cover CDRs are designed to capture snow-covered area (SCA) variab...

A local to regional assessment of transported snow during snow storms or subsequent periods of strong winds is a prerequisite to reliably predict avalanche danger. Despite the fact that it has received continuing attention for decades, the problem of quantifying snow transport persists. Systems from point measurements to full three-dimensional simulations are in operation but all have their res...

introduction snow is a kind of precipitation that is formed by the condensation of moist air mass and in the condition that temperature is below freezing point. although small areas of the world are mountainous regions, these small territories play an important role in the hydrological context of river basins. in some areas snow covers and glaciers supply drinking water. monitoring and forecast...

Title of Thesis: MAPPING SNOW COVER IN SIBERIA USING GIS AND REMOTE SENSING Aditya Saini, Master of Science, 2003 Thesis directed by: Associate Professor Kaye L. Brubaker Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering The seasonal snowpack dynamics of the Siberian mountains and plains play a critical role in the freshwater fluxes of northern rivers into the Arctic Ocean. This study is part o...

Increasing production of artificial snow in ski resorts is controversially discussed, but only few investigations have been carried out systematically to specify the environmental impacts. We measured snow depth and density from groomed ski pistes (runs) with compacted snow and their effects on ground temperatures and timing of snowmelt. We analyzed groomed pistes with and without artificial sn...

Observed climate change has already led to a wide range of impacts on environmental systems and society. In this context, many mountain regions seem to be particularly sensitive to a changing climate, through increases in temperature coupled with changes in precipitation regimes that are often larger than the global average (EEA, 2012). In mid-latitude mountains, these driving factors strongly ...