Item: DUST ON SNOW IN THE WESTERN US: PROCESSES, PATTERNS, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR SNOW DURATION, WATER RESOURCES, AND SAFETY
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Title: DUST ON SNOW IN THE WESTERN US: PROCESSES, PATTERNS, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR SNOW DURATION, WATER RESOURCES, AND SAFETY
Proceedings: International Snow Science Workshop Proceedings 2023, Bend, Oregon
Authors:
- S. McKenzie Skiles [ University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah ]
- Otto Lang [ University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah ]
- Patrick Naple [ University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah ]
Date: 2023-10-08
Abstract: Dust deposition on snow darkens the naturally bright surface, increasing absorption of solar radiation, and providing more energy for melt. Dust is effective at shortening snow duration because it is persistent; individual layers combine at the snow surface as snow melts, compounding surface darkening as days lengthen and solar radiation increases in the spring. To date, dust-on-snow (DOS) has been most well studied at Senator Beck Basin Study Area (SBBSA), in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, the first high elevation point of contact for dust emitted from the southern Colorado Plateau. Episodic DOS events are observed every spring at SBBSA, although the number of dust events and dust loading varies significantly from year to year. Twenty years of research at SBBSA has shown that following modern settlement of the West dust deposition rates increased fivefold, that snow darkening due to dust accelerates snowmelt by 3-5 weeks, is a stronger control on melt rates than warming temperatures, and that dust accelerated melt reduces total water yield and is correlated with errors in runoff forecasting. At the regional scale, satellite remote sensing of snow darkening indicates that dust impacts are most severe in the southern Colorado Rockies, but are still relevant across the mountains of the Western US. Here, we will summarize the detailed dust on snow record at SBBSA, and use newer study sites and the remote sensing record to put it in a regional context.
Object ID: ISSW2023_O16.02.pdf
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s): Otto Lang
Keywords: dust-on-snow, snow hydrology, energy balance, snowmelt
Page Number(s): 1240 - 1244
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