A comparison of modeled, remotely sensed, and measured snow water equivalent in the northern Great Plains

2003 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas L. Mote ◽  
Andrew J. Grundstein ◽  
Daniel J. Leathers ◽  
David A. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Remotely Sensed ◽  
Northern Great Plains ◽  
Snow Water

Intercomparison of snow water equivalent observations in the Northern Great Plains

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 817-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel E. Tuttle ◽  
Jennifer M. Jacobs ◽  
Carrie M. Vuyovich ◽  
Carrie Olheiser ◽  
Eunsang Cho
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Northern Great Plains ◽  
Snow Water

A hybrid Climatology of Snow Water Equivalent Over the Northern Great Plains of the United States

2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Grundstein ◽  
Thomas Mote ◽  
Daniel Leathers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
The United States ◽  
Northern Great Plains ◽  
Snow Water

Characteristics and Predictability of Midwestern United States Drought

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hoell ◽  
Trent W. Ford ◽  
Molly Woloszyn ◽  
Jason A. Otkin ◽  
Jon Eischeid
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Clustering Algorithm ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Northern Great Plains ◽  
Ohio Valley ◽  
Midwestern United States ◽  
Wave Trains

AbstractCharacteristics and predictability of drought in the Midwestern United States, spanning the Great Plains to the Ohio Valley, at local and regional scales are examined during 1916-2015. Given vast differences in hydroclimatic variability across the Midwest, drought is evaluated in four regions identified using a hierarchical clustering algorithm applied to an integrated drought index based on soil moisture, snow water equivalent, and three-month runoff from land surface models forced by observed analyses. Highlighting the regions containing the Ohio Valley (OV) and Northern Great Plains (NGP), the OV demonstrates a preference for sub-annual droughts, the timing of which can lead to prevalent dry epochs, while the NGP demonstrates a preference for annual-to-multi-annual droughts. Regional drought variations are closely related to precipitation, resulting in a higher likelihood of drought onset or demise during wet seasons: March-November in the NGP and all year in the OV, with a preference for March-May and September-November. Due to the distinct dry season in the NGP, there is a higher likelihood of longer drought persistence, as the NGP is four times more likely to experience drought lasting at least one year compared to the OV. While drought variability in all regions and seasons are related to atmospheric wave trains spanning the Pacific-North American sector, longer-lead predictability is limited to the OV in December-February because it is the only region/season related to slow-varying sea surface temperatures consistent with El Niño-Southern Oscillation. The wave trains in all other regions appear to be generated in the atmosphere, highlighting the importance of internal atmospheric variability in shaping Midwestern drought.

scholarly journals Spatio-temporal variability of snow water equivalent in the extra-tropical Andes Cordillera from distributed energy balance modeling and remotely sensed snow cover

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 411-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Cornwell ◽  
N. P. Molotch ◽  
J. McPhee
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Remotely Sensed ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Model Assessment ◽  
Continental Divide ◽  
Average Maximum ◽  
Snow Water ◽  
Andes Cordillera

Abstract. Seasonal snow cover is the primary water source for human use and ecosystems along the extratropical Andes Cordillera. Despite its importance, relatively little research has been devoted to understanding the properties, distribution and variability of this natural resource. This research provides high-resolution (500 m), daily distributed estimates of end-of-winter and spring snow water equivalent over a 152 000 km2 domain that includes the mountainous reaches of central Chile and Argentina. Remotely sensed fractional snow-covered area and other relevant forcings are combined with extrapolated data from meteorological stations and a simplified physically based energy balance model in order to obtain melt-season melt fluxes that are then aggregated to estimate the end-of-winter (or peak) snow water equivalent (SWE). Peak SWE estimates show an overall coefficient of determination R2 of 0.68 and RMSE of 274 mm compared to observations at 12 automatic snow water equivalent sensors distributed across the model domain, with R2 values between 0.32 and 0.88. Regional estimates of peak SWE accumulation show differential patterns strongly modulated by elevation, latitude and position relative to the continental divide. The spatial distribution of peak SWE shows that the 4000–5000 m a.s.l. elevation band is significant for snow accumulation, despite having a smaller surface area than the 3000–4000 m a.s.l. band. On average, maximum snow accumulation is observed in early September in the western Andes, and in early October on the eastern side of the continental divide. The results presented here have the potential of informing applications such as seasonal forecast model assessment and improvement, regional climate model validation, as well as evaluation of observational networks and water resource infrastructure development.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document