The Cryosphere
The Cryosphere
TC
Articles | Volume 16, issue 10
Articles | Volume 16, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4319-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4319-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 16, issue 10
Research article
 | 
14 Oct 2022
Research article |  | 14 Oct 2022

Understanding wind-driven melt of patchy snow cover

Luuk D. van der Valk, Adriaan J. Teuling, Luc Girod, Norbert Pirk, Robin Stoffer, and Chiel C. van Heerwaarden

Data sets

Snowmelt observations: Understanding wind-driven melt of patchy snow cover Luuk D. van der Valk, Adriaan J. Teuling, Luc Girod, Norbert Pirk, Robin Stoffer, and Chiel C. van Heerwaarden https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4704873

Simulation output: Understanding wind-driven melt of patchy snow cover Luuk D. van der Valk, Adriaan J. Teuling, Luc Girod, Norbert Pirk, Robin Stoffer, and Chiel C. van Heerwaarden https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4705288

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Short summary
Most large-scale hydrological and climate models struggle to capture the spatially highly variable wind-driven melt of patchy snow cover. In the field, we find that 60 %–80 % of the total melt is wind driven at the upwind edge of a snow patch, while it does not contribute at the downwind edge. Our idealized simulations show that the variation is due to a patch-size-independent air-temperature reduction over snow patches and also allow us to study the role of wind-driven snowmelt on larger scales.
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