Articles | Volume 15, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3813-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3813-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
18 Aug 2021
Research article |
| 18 Aug 2021
| 18 Aug 2021
Synoptic control on snow avalanche activity in central Spitsbergen
Holt Hancock
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Arctic Geology, University Centre in Svalbard, 9171 Longyearbyen, Norway
Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, 0371 Oslo, Norway
Jordy Hendrikx
Snow and Avalanche Lab, Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, P.O. Box 173480, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
Markus Eckerstorfer
Regional Climate Lab., Climate Department, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, 5838 Bergen, Norway
Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, 5007 Bergen, Norway
Siiri Wickström
Department of Arctic Geophysics, University Centre in Svalbard, 9171 Longyearbyen, Norway
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This work uses terrestrial laser scanning techniques to monitor and quantify changes to snow cornices near Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway, with sub-decimeter accuracy. Our findings illustrate how complex interactions between topography and meteorological conditions govern the growth, failure, and associated avalanche activity of the cornices in this location. These findings can help improve forecasting of snow-cornice-related hazards in this and other locations exposed to snow cornice hazards.
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Our research links upper atmospheric circulation patterns to a destructive and difficult-to-predict type of snow avalanche in the western United States. At each of our study sites, we find unique circulation patterns that tend to occur at the beginning of the winter season during years with major avalanche activity. We also find specific patterns that occur frequently in the days leading to major avalanche events. This work will enable practitioners to better anticipate these challenging events.
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This work uses terrestrial laser scanning techniques to monitor and quantify changes to snow cornices near Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway, with sub-decimeter accuracy. Our findings illustrate how complex interactions between topography and meteorological conditions govern the growth, failure, and associated avalanche activity of the cornices in this location. These findings can help improve forecasting of snow-cornice-related hazards in this and other locations exposed to snow cornice hazards.
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Revised manuscript has not been submitted
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Benjamin Walter, Hendrik Huwald, Josué Gehring, Yves Bühler, and Michael Lehning
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We applied a horizontally mounted low-cost precipitation radar to measure velocities, frequency of occurrence, travel distances and turbulence characteristics of blowing snow off a mountain ridge. Our analysis provides a first insight into the potential of radar measurements for determining blowing snow characteristics, improves our understanding of mountain ridge blowing snow events and serves as a valuable data basis for validating coupled numerical weather and snowpack simulations.
Charles Amory and Christoph Kittel
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Snow mass fluxes and vertical profiles of relative humidity are used to document concurrent occurrences of drifting snow and near-surface air saturation at a site dominated by katabatic winds in East Antarctica. Despite a high prevalence of drifting snow conditions, we demonstrate that saturation is reached only in the most extreme wind and transport conditions and discuss implications for the understanding of surface mass and atmospheric moisture budgets of the Antarctic ice sheet.
Varun Sharma, Louise Braud, and Michael Lehning
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Snow surfaces, under the action of wind, form beautiful shapes such as waves and dunes. This study is the first ever study to simulate these shapes using a state-of-the-art numerical modelling tool. While these beautiful and ephemeral shapes on snow surfaces are fascinating from a purely aesthetic point of view, they are also critical in regulating the transfer of heat and mass between the atmosphere and snowpacks, thus being of huge importance to the Earth system.
Yvan Orsolini, Martin Wegmann, Emanuel Dutra, Boqi Liu, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Kun Yang, Patricia de Rosnay, Congwen Zhu, Wenli Wang, Retish Senan, and Gabriele Arduini
The Cryosphere, 13, 2221–2239, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2221-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2221-2019, 2019
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The Tibetan Plateau region exerts a considerable influence on regional climate, yet the snowpack over that region is poorly represented in both climate and forecast models due a large precipitation and snowfall bias. We evaluate the snowpack in state-of-the-art atmospheric reanalyses against in situ observations and satellite remote sensing products. Improved snow initialisation through better use of snow observations in reanalyses may improve medium-range to seasonal weather forecasts.
Dušan Materić, Elke Ludewig, Kangming Xu, Thomas Röckmann, and Rupert Holzinger
The Cryosphere, 13, 297–307, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-297-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-297-2019, 2019
Niels Souverijns, Alexandra Gossart, Stef Lhermitte, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, Jacopo Grazioli, Alexis Berne, Claudio Duran-Alarcon, Brice Boudevillain, Christophe Genthon, Claudio Scarchilli, and Nicole P. M. van Lipzig
The Cryosphere, 12, 3775–3789, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3775-2018, 2018
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Snowfall observations over Antarctica are scarce and currently limited to information from the CloudSat satellite. Here, a first evaluation of the CloudSat snowfall record is performed using observations of ground-based precipitation radars. Results indicate an accurate representation of the snowfall climatology over Antarctica, despite the low overpass frequency of the satellite, outperforming state-of-the-art model estimates. Individual snowfall events are however not well represented.
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Short summary
We investigate how snow avalanche activity in central Spitsbergen, Svalbard, is broadly controlled by atmospheric circulation. Avalanche activity in this region is generally associated with atmospheric circulation conducive to increased precipitation, wind speeds, and air temperatures near Svalbard during winter storms. Our results help place avalanche activity on Spitsbergen in the wider context of Arctic environmental change and provide a foundation for improved avalanche forecasting here.
We investigate how snow avalanche activity in central Spitsbergen, Svalbard, is broadly...
