TCD The Cryosphere Discussions TCD The Cryosphere Discuss. 1994-0440 Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/tcd-6-715-2012 Longer spring snowmelt: spatial and temporal variations of snowmelt trends detected by passive microwave from 1988 to 2010 in the Yukon River Basin Semmens K. A. 1 Ramage J. M. 1 Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA 17 02 2012 6 1 715 735 Copyright: © 2012 K. A. Semmens 2012 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/6/715/2012/tcd-6-715-2012.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/6/715/2012/tcd-6-715-2012.pdf

Brightness temperature (<i>T</i><sub>b</sub>) data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) 37 V-GHz frequency provides a time series from 1988 to 2010 that enables the assessment of snowmelt timing trends (onset, end of melt-refreeze, and duration) for the Yukon River Basin. <i>T</i><sub>b</sub> and diurnal amplitude variation (DAV) thresholds determine dates of melt onset and melt-freeze end (end of high DAV), defined as the first date when thresholds are met for more than three of five consecutive days. Temporal and spatial trends in melt onset and end of melt-refreeze date are determined with varying time period intervals and for each sub-basin and elevation class. Earlier melt onset trends are found in the highest elevations and northernmost sub-basins (Porcupine, Chandalar, and Koyukuk Rivers). Significant later (>0.75 d yr<sup>−1</sup>) end of melt-refreeze and longer melt duration trends are found in a majority of the sub-basins. Moving interval trends suggest interannual variability within the time series and a power spectrum analysis reveals peak frequencies and periods of 5–7 and ~11 years, possibly related to El Nino- Southern Oscillation and the solar cycle, respectively. Latitude and elevation display the dominant controls on timing variance and spring solar flux is highly correlated with melt timing in middle elevations.

 References Abdalati, W., Steffen, K., Otto, C., and Jezek, K. C.: Comparison of brightness temperatures from SSMI instruments on the DMSP F8 and F11 satellites for Antarctica and the Greenland ice sheet, Int. J. Remote Sens., 16, 1223–1229, 1995. Adam, J. C., Hamlet, A. F., and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Implications of global climate change for snowmelt hydrology in the twenty-first century, Hydrol. Proc., 23, 962–972, 2009. Apgar, J. D., Ramage, J. M., McKenney, R. A., and Maltais, P.: Preliminary AMSR-E Algorithm for Snowmelt Onset Detection in Subarctic Heterogeneous Terrain, Hydrol. Proc., 21, 1587–1596, 2007. Armstrong, R. L., Knowles, K. W., Brodzik, M. J., and Hardman, M. A.: DMSP SSM/I Pathfinder Daily EASE-Grid Brightness Temperatures [1988–2010], Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center, 1994. Barnett, T. P., Adam, J. C., and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Potential impacts of a warming climate on water availability in snow-dominated regions, Nature, 438, 303–309, 2005. Brabets, T. P., Wang, B., and Meade, R. H.: Environmental and hydrologic overview of the Yukon River Basin, Alaska and Canada, USGS Water-Resources Investigations Report 99-4204, Anchorage, Alaska, 2000. Burn, D. H. and Hag Elnur, M. A.: Detection of hydrologic trends and variability, J. Hydrol., 255, 107–122, 2002. Burn, D. H., Sharif, M., and Zhang, K.: Detection of trends in hydrological extremes for Canadian watersheds, Hydrol. Proc., 24, 1781–1790, 2010. Cavalieri, D. J., Parkinson, C. L., Gloersen, P., Comiso, J. C., and Zwally, J. H.: Deriving long-term time series of sea ice cover from satellite passive-microwave multisensory data sets, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 15803–15814, 1999. Cayan, D. R., Kammerdiener, S. A., Dettinger, M. D., Caprio, J. M., and Peterson, D. H.: Changes in the onset of spring in the western United States, Bull. Am. Meterol. Soc., 82, 399–415, 2001. Chang, A. T. C. and Gloersen, P.: Microwave emission from dry & wet snow, Operational Applications of Satellite Snow Cover Observations: 399–407, NASA, SP 391, Washington, DC, 1975. Chang, A. T. C., Gloersen, P., Schmugge, T., Wilheit, T. T., and Zwally, H. J.: Microwave emission from snow and glacier ice, J. Glaciol., 16, 23–39, 1976. Dai, L. and Che, T.: Cross-platform calibration of SMMR, SSM/I and AMSR-E passive microwave brightness temperature, Sixth International Symposium on Digital Earth: Data Processing and Applications, Proc. of SPIE 7841, 784103, 2009. Dong, J., Walker, J. P., and Houser, P. R.: Factors affecting remotely sensed snow water equivalent uncertainty, Remote Sens. Environ., 97, 68–82, 2005. Drobot, S. and Anderson, M.: An improved method for determining melting onset dates over Arctic sea ice using scanning multichannel microwave radiometer and Special Sensor Microwave/Imager data, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 24033–24049, 2001. Foster, J. L., Sun, C., Walker, J. P., Kelly, R., Chang, A., Dong, J., and Powell, H.: Quantifying the uncertainty in passive microwave snow water equivalent observations, Remote Sens. Environ., 94, 187–203, 2005. Hall, D. K., Sturm, M., Benson, C. S., Chang, A. T. C., Foster, J. L., Garbeil, H., and Chacho, E.: Passive microwave remote and in situ measurements of arctic and subarctic snow covers in Alaska, Remote Sens. Environ., 38, 161–172, 1991. Hay, L. E. and McCabe, G. J.: Hydrologic effects of climate change in the Yukon River Basin, Climatic Change, 100, 509–23, 2010. Kalnay, E., Kanamitsu, M., Kistler, R., Collins, W., Deaven, D., Gandin, L., Iredell, M., Saha, S., White, G., Woollen, J., Zhu, Y., Leetmaa, A., Reynolds, R., Chelliah, M., Ebisuzaki, W., Higgins, W., Janowiak, J., Mo, K.C., Ropelewski, C., Wang, J., Jenne, R., and Joseph, D.: NCEP/NCAR 40-yr reanalysis project, Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc., 77, 437–470, 1996. Kane, D. L.: The impact of Arctic hydrologic perturbations on Arctic ecosystems induced by climate change, Global Change and Arctic Terrestrial Ecosystems, Ecological Studies 124, Spring-Verlag: New York, 63–81, 1997. Kay, J. E., Holland, M. M., and Jahn, A.: Inter-annual to multi-decadal Arctic sea ice extent trends in a warming world, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L15708, 2011. Long, D. and Brabets, T. P.: Coverage YUK{_}DEM National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) Yukon River Basin, Canada and Alaska Basin, Yukon River, 2002. Mätzler, C., Hiltbrunner, D., and Standley, A.: Relief effects for passive microwave remote sensing, WP330, SNOW-TOOLS, Research Report No. 98-3, 1998. McBean, G., Alekseev, G., Chen, D., Førland, E., Fyfe, J., Groisman, P. Y., King, R., Melling, H., Vose, R., and Whitfield, P. H.: Arctic climate: past and present, Arctic Climate Impacts Assessment (ACIA), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 21–60, 2005. Meier, W. N., Khalsa, S. J. S., and Savoie, M. H.: Intersensor calibration between F-13 SSM/I and F-17 SSMIs near-real-time sea ice estimates, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote Sens., 49, 3343–3349, https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2011.2117433, 2011. Mote, T. L., Anderson, M. R., Kuivinen, K. C., and Rowe, C. M.: Passive microwave-derived spatial & temporal variations of summer melt on Greenland ice sheet, Ann. Glaciol., 17, 233–238, 1993. National Research Council of Canada: 10.7 cm Solar Flux Data, <a href="ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/STP/SOLAR{_">ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/STP/SOLAR{_</a>DATA/SOLAR{_}RADIO/FLUX/Penticton{_}Observed/monthly/MONTHLY.OBS}, 2011. Nijssen, B., O'Donnell, G. M., Hamlet, A. F., and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Hydrologic sensitivity of global rivers to climate change, Climatic Change, 30, 143–175, 2001. Önöz, B. and Bayazi, M.: The power of statistical tests for trend detection, Turkish J. Eng. Env. Sci., 27, 247–251, 2003. Ramage, J.M. and Isacks, B.L.: Determination of melt-onset and refreeze timing on southeast Alaskan icefields using SSM/I diurnal amplitude variations, Annals of Glaciology, 34, 391-398, 2002. Ramage, J. M., McKenney, R. A., Thorson, B., Maltais, P., and Kopczynski, S. E.: Relationship between passive microwave-derived snowmelt and surface-measured discharge, Wheaton River, Yukon, Hydrol. Proc., 20, 689–704, 2006. Rice, R., Bales, R. C., Painter, T. H., and Dozier, J.: Snow water equivalent along elevation gradients in the Merced & Tuolumne River basins, Sierra Nevada, Water Resour. Res., 47, W08515, 2011. Rouse, W. R., Douglas, M. S. V., Hecky, R. E., Hershey, A. E., Kling, G. W., Lesack, L., Marsh, P., McDonald, M., Nicholson, B. J., Roulet, N. T., and Smol, J. P.: Effects of climate change on the freshwaters of Arctic and Subarctic North America, Hydrol. Proc., 11, 873–902, 1997. Schwartz, M. D., Ahas, R., and Aasa, A.: Onset of spring starting earlier across the North Hemisphere, Global Change Biol., 12, 343–351, 2006. Serreze, M. C., Walsh, J. E., Chapin III, F. S., Osterkamp, T., Dyurgerov, M., Romanovsky, V., Oechel, W. C., Morison, J., Zhang, T., and Barry, R. G.: Observational evidence of recent change in the northern high-latitude environment, Climatic Change, 46, 159–207, 2000. Shakesby, R. A. and Doerr, S. H.: Wildfire as a hydrological and geomorphological agent, Earth-Sci. Rev., 74, 269–307, 2006. Stroeve, J., Maslanik, J., and Xiaoming, L.: An intercomparison of DMSP F11- and F13-derived sea ice products, Remote Sens. Environ., 64, 132–152, 1998. Tedesco, M.: Snowmelt detection over the Greenland ice sheet from SSM/I brightness temperature daily variations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L02504, 2007. Tedesco, M., Brodzik, M., Armstrong, R., Savoie, M., and Ramage, J.: Pan arctic terrestrial snowmelt trends from spaceborne passive microwave data and correlation with the AO, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L21402, 2009. Tomasino, M. and Valle, F. D.: Natural climatic changes and solar cycles: an analysis of hydrological time series, Hydrol. Sci. J., 45, 477–489, 2000. Ulaby, F. T., Moore, R. K., and Fung, A. K.: Microwave Remote Sensing: Active and Passive, Vol. III: From Theory to Applications, Artech House: Dedham, 1986. Walvoord, M. A. and Striegl, R. G.: Increased groundwater to stream discharge from permafrost thawing in the Yukon River basin: Potential impacts on lateral export of carbon and nitrogen, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L12402, 2007. Wang, L., Sharp, M., Brown, R., Derksen, C., and Rivard, B.: Evaluation of spring snow covered area depletion in Canadian Arctic, NOAA snow charts, Remote Sens. Environ., 95, 453–63, 2005. Wang, L., Derksen, C., and Brown, R.: Detection of pan-arctic terrestrial snowmelt from QuikSCAT, 2000–2005, Remote Sens. Environ., 112, 3795–3805, 2008. Wang, L., Wolken, G. J., Sharp, M. J., Howell, S. E. L., Derksen, C., Brown, R. D., Markus, T., and Cole, J.: Integrated pan-Arctic melt onset detection from satellite active and passive microwave measurements, 2000–2009, J. Geophys. Res., 116, D22103, 2011. Westerling, A. L., Hidalgo, H. G., Cayan, D. R., and Swetnam, T. W.: Warming and earlier spring increase western US forest wildfire activity, Science, 313, 940–943, 2006. Woo, M. K. and Thorne, R.: Snowmelt contribution to discharge from large mountainous catchment in subarctic Canada, Hydrol. Proc., 20, 2129–2139, 2006. Woo, M. K., Thorne, R., Szeto, K., and Yang, D.: Streamflow hydrology in boreal region under the influences of climate and human interference, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 363, 2251–2260, 2008. Yang, D., Kane, D. L., Hinzman, L. D., Zhang, X., Zhang, T., and Ye, H.: Siberian Lena River hydrologic regime and recent change, J. Geophys. Res., 107, 4694, 2002. Yang, D., Zhao, Y., Armstrong, R., and Robinson, D.: Yukon River streamflow response to seasonal snow cover changes, Hydrol. Proc., 23, 109–121, 2009. Zhang, Z., Dehoff, A. D., and Pody, R. D.: New approach to identify trend pattern of streamflows, J. Hydrol. Eng., 15, 244–248, 2010.