The Changing Cryosphere: Pan-Arctic Snow Trends (1979–2009)

AbstractArctic snow presence, absence, properties, and water amount are key components of Earth’s changing climate system that incur far-reaching physical and biological ramifications. Recent dataset and modeling developments permit relatively high-resolution (10-km horizontal grid; 3-h time step) pan-Arctic snow estimates for 1979–2009. Using MicroMet and SnowModel in conjunction with land cover, topography, and 30 years of the NASA Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) atmospheric reanalysis data, a distributed snow-related dataset was created including air temperature, snow precipitation, snow-season timing and length, maximum snow water equivalent (SWE) depth, average snow density, snow sublimation, and rain-on-snow events. Regional variability is a dominant feature of the modeled snow-property trends. Both positive and negative regional trends are distributed throughout the pan-Arctic domain, featuring, for example, spatially distinct areas of increasing and decreasi...

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