Can Saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the French Alps?

Dick, Oscar; Viallon-Galinier, Léo; Tuzet, François; Hagenmuller, Pascal; Fructus, Mathieu; Reuter, Benjamin; Lafaysse, Matthieu; Dumont, Marie

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023

Articles | Volume 17, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1755-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 4

Research article

|

26 Apr 2023

Research article |

| 26 Apr 2023

Can Saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the French Alps?

Oscar Dick, Léo Viallon-Galinier, François Tuzet, Pascal Hagenmuller, Mathieu Fructus, Benjamin Reuter, Matthieu Lafaysse, and Marie Dumont

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Final revised paper (published on 26 Apr 2023)
Preprint (discussion started on 14 Nov 2022)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on tc-2022-219', Kevin Hammonds, 26 Jan 2023

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2022-219/tc-2022-219-RC1-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2022-219-RC1
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Léo Viallon-Galinier, 28 Feb 2023
  
  The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2022-219/tc-2022-219-AC1-supplement.pdf
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2022-219-AC1
RC2:
'Comment on tc-2022-219', Ingrid Reiweger, 27 Jan 2023

Review TC-2022-219
The paper “Can Saharan dust deposition impact snowpack stability in the French Alps?“ deals with the question on how Saharan dust deposition influence snowpack stability with respect to avalanche release. To investigate the subject, the authors use both real and simulated snowpacks with and without dust and calculate stability indices for both snowpacks (dust vs. no dust). These stability indices are then compared to estimate the dust’s influence on snowpack stability. The short answer to the initial question is, not surprisingly, found to be “it depends”. Nevertheless, the paper provides interesting insights, cool modelling chains with ensemble modelling, as well as splendid presentation of the resulting statistics, and I would certainly recommend publication, taking into consideration the detailed comments below.
2.3 Here suddenly you change to present tense!
p.6 l. 24 are not
p.6 l. 26 The stresses due to a skier or due to the load of the overlying snow layers?
p.6. l.28 What about surface hoar as a weak layer?
p.23 l. 13: had not
Formula 1: I guess i = 1 … i_max What is i_max?
Moreover, I really wonder whether dust inhibits growth of surface hoar and this increases snowpack stability for this particular case?

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2022-219-RC2
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Léo Viallon-Galinier, 28 Feb 2023
  
  The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2022-219/tc-2022-219-AC2-supplement.pdf
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2022-219-AC2

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by editor and referees) (01 Mar 2023) by Jürg Schweizer

AR by Léo Viallon-Galinier on behalf of the Authors (01 Mar 2023) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (09 Mar 2023) by Jürg Schweizer

RR by Kevin Hammonds (10 Mar 2023)

RR by Ingrid Reiweger (13 Mar 2023)

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (25 Mar 2023) by Jürg Schweizer

AR by Léo Viallon-Galinier on behalf of the Authors (29 Mar 2023) Manuscript

Short summary

Saharan dust deposition can drastically change the snow color, turning mountain landscapes into sepia scenes. Dust increases the absorption of solar energy by the snow cover and thus modifies the snow evolution and potentially the avalanche risk. Here we show that dust can lead to increased or decreased snowpack stability depending on the snow and meteorological conditions after the deposition event. We also show that wet-snow avalanches happen earlier in the season due to the presence of dust.