Observations and simulations of the seasonal evolution of snowpack cold content and its relation to snowmelt and the snowpack energy budget

Jennings, Keith S.; Kittel, Timothy G. F.; Molotch, Noah P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1595-2018

Articles | Volume 12, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1595-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1595-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 5

Research article

|

03 May 2018

Research article |

| 03 May 2018

Observations and simulations of the seasonal evolution of snowpack cold content and its relation to snowmelt and the snowpack energy budget

Keith S. Jennings, Timothy G. F. Kittel, and Noah P. Molotch

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Final revised paper (published on 03 May 2018)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 08 Dec 2017)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review on Jennings, et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 22 Dec 2017
- AC1: 'Author response to Reviewer 1', Keith Jennings, 07 Mar 2018
RC2: 'referee comment', Anonymous Referee #2, 01 Feb 2018
- AC2: 'Author response to Reviewer 2', Keith Jennings, 07 Mar 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Keith Jennings on behalf of the Authors (08 Mar 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (10 Mar 2018) by Chris Derksen

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (27 Mar 2018)

ED: Publish as is (28 Mar 2018) by Chris Derksen

AR by Keith Jennings on behalf of the Authors (30 Mar 2018) Manuscript

Short summary

We show through observations and simulations that cold content, a key part of the snowpack energy budget, develops primarily through new snowfall. We also note that cold content damps snowmelt rate and timing at sub-seasonal timescales, while seasonal melt onset is controlled by the timing of peak cold content and total spring precipitation. This work has implications for how cold content is represented in snow models and improves our understanding of its effect on snowmelt processes.