Evaluating the effect of snow and ice melt in an Alpine headwater catchment and further downstream in the River Rhine

Junghans, Nadine; Cullmann, Johannes; Huss, Matthias

doi:10.1080/02626667.2011.595372

Cited by 22 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…First of all, in many mountainous and high mountain regions, the seasonal 20 snowpack contributes a major portion of the water budget. With a contribution of up to 50 % and more to the annual discharge, snow melt plays a key role in the dynamic of the hydrology of catchments of various high mountain areas such as the Himalayas (e.g., Jeelani et al, 2012), the Alps (e.g., Junghans et al, 2011) and the Norwegian mountains (e.g., Engelhardt et al, 2014), and is thus an equally important contributor to stream flow generation as rain in these affected areas. Furthermore, timing investigating the impact of LAISI on the snow melt and runoff predominantly use empirical formulations to investigate the impact of LAISI on the radiative forcing in snow, by observing the net surface shortwave fluxes over snow and identifying the contribution from the LAISI through determination of the (hypothetical) clean snow albedo (e.g., Painter et al, 2007;Skiles et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling hydrologic impacts of light absorbing aerosol deposition on snow at the catchment scale

Matt¹,

Burkhart²,

Pietikäinen³

2016

Preprint

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Light absorbing impurities in snow and ice (LAISI) originating from atmospheric deposition enhance the snow melt by increasing the absorption of short wave radiation. The consequences are a shortening of the snow duration due to increased snow melt and, on a catchment scale, a temporal shift in the discharge generation during the spring melt season. In this study, we present a newly developed snow algorithm for application in hydrolgical models that allows for an additional class of input variables: the deposition rate of various species of light absorbing aerosols. 5To show the sensitivity of different model parameters, we first use the model as 1-D point model forced with representative synthetic data and investigate the impact of parameters and variables specific to the algorithm determining the effect of LAISI.We then demonstrate the significance of the additional forcing by simulating black carbon deposited on snow of a remote south Norwegian catchment over a six years period, from September 2006 to August 2012. Our simulations suggest a significant impact of BC in snow on the hydrological cycle, with an average increase in discharge of 2.5 %, 9.9 %, and 21.4 % for our 10 minimum, central and maximum effect estimate, respectively, over a two months period during the spring melt season compared to simulations where radiative forcing from LAISI is turned off. The increase in discharge is followed by a decrease caused by melt limitation due to faster decrease of the catchment's snow covered fraction in the scenarios where radiative forcing from LAISI is applied. The central effect estimate produces reasonable surface BC concentrations in snow with a strong annual cycle, showing increasing surface BC concentration during spring melt as consequence of melt amplification. However, we 15 further identify large uncertainties in the representation of the surface BC concentration and the subsequent consequences for the snowpack evolution. and magnitude of the snow melt are major predictors for flood (Berghuijs et al., 2016) and land slide (Kawagoe et al., 2009) forecasts, and important factors in water resource management and operational hydropower forecasting. The extent and the temporal evolution of the snow cover is a controlling factor in the processes determining the growing-season of plants (Jonas et al., 2008). For all these reasons, a good representation of the seasonal snowpack in hydrological models is paramount.However, there are large uncertainties in many variables specifying the temporal evolution of the snowpack, and the snow 5 albedo is one of the most important among those due to the direct effect on the energy input to the snowpack from solar radiation. Fresh snow can have an albedo of over 0.9, reflecting most of the incoming solar radiation. However, the snow albedo undergoes strong variations: as snow ages, the snow grain size increases and albedo will drop as a result of the altered scattering properties of the larger snow grains. Furthermore, ambient conditions also play a large role. The ratio ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling hydrologic impacts of light absorbing aerosol deposition on snow at the catchment scale

Matt¹,

Burkhart²,

Pietikäinen³

2016

Preprint

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“…They will be even intensified by increased potential evaporation in a warmer climate. On the scale of the European Alps this is expected to have regional (Horton et al, 2006) to transnational impacts (Bradley, 2006;Junghans et al, 2010) on irrigation and agriculture, the biosphere and shipping traffic on major streams. The glacier discharge peak is shifted from early August to end of May.…”

Section: Future Runoffmentioning

confidence: 99%

Future high-mountain hydrology: a new parameterization of glacier retreat

Huss

Jouvet

Farinotti

et al. 2010

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

226

212

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Abstract. Global warming is expected to significantly affect the runoff regime of mountainous catchments. Simple methods for calculating future glacier change in hydrological models are required in order to reliably assess economic impacts of changes in the water cycle over the next decades. Models for temporal and spatial glacier evolution need to describe the climate forcing acting on the glacier, and ice flow dynamics. Flow models, however, demand considerable computational resources and field data input and are moreover not applicable on the regional scale. Here, we propose a simple parameterization for calculating the change in glacier surface elevation and area, which is mass conserving and suited for hydrological modelling. The h-parameterization is an empirical glacier-specific function derived from observations in the past that can easily be applied to large samples of glaciers. We compare the h-parameterization to results of a 3-D finite-element ice flow model. As case studies, the evolution of two Alpine glaciers of different size over the period 2008-2100 is investigated using regional climate scenarios. The parameterization closely reproduces the distributed ice thickness change, as well as glacier area and length predicted by the ice flow model. This indicates that for the purpose of transient runoff forecasts, future glacier geometry change can be approximated using a simple parameterization instead of complex ice flow modelling. Furthermore, we analyse alpine glacier response to 21st century climate change and consequent shifts in the runoff regime of a highly glacierized catchment using the proposed methods.

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“…In many mountain regions, the seasonal snowpack constitutes a major portion of the water budget, contributing up to 50 %, and even more, to the annual discharge (e.g. Junghans et al, 2011). Snowmelt plays a key role in the dynamic of the hydrology of catchments of various high mountain areas such as the Himalayas (Jeelani et al, 2012), the Alps (Junghans et al, 2011), and the Norwegian mountains (Engelhardt et al, 2014), and is an equally important contributor to streamflow generation as rain in these areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Junghans et al, 2011). Snowmelt plays a key role in the dynamic of the hydrology of catchments of various high mountain areas such as the Himalayas (Jeelani et al, 2012), the Alps (Junghans et al, 2011), and the Norwegian mountains (Engelhardt et al, 2014), and is an equally important contributor to streamflow generation as rain in these areas. Furthermore, timing and magnitude of the snowmelt are major predictors for flood (Berghuijs et al, 2016) and landslide (Kawagoe et al, 2009) forecasts, and important factors in water resource management and operational hydropower forecasting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling hydrologic impacts of light absorbing aerosol deposition on snow at the catchment scale

Matt

Burkhart

Pietikäinen

2018

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Light absorbing impurities in snow and ice (LAISI) originating from atmospheric deposition enhance snowmelt by increasing the absorption of shortwave radiation. The consequences are a shortening of the snow duration due to increased snowmelt and, at the catchment scale, a temporal shift in the discharge generation during the spring melt season.In this study, we present a newly developed snow algorithm for application in hydrological models that allows for an additional class of input variable: the deposition mass flux of various species of light absorbing aerosols. To show the sensitivity of different model parameters, we first use the model as a 1-D point model forced with representative synthetic data and investigate the impact of parameters and variables specific to the algorithm determining the effect of LAISI. We then demonstrate the significance of the radiative forcing by simulating the effect of black carbon (BC) deposited on snow of a remote southern Norwegian catchment over a 6-year period, from September 2006 to August 2012. Our simulations suggest a significant impact of BC in snow on the hydrological cycle. Results show an average increase in discharge of 2.5, 9.9, and 21.4 %, depending on the applied model scenario, over a 2-month period during the spring melt season compared to simulations where radiative forcing from LAISI is not considered. The increase in discharge is followed by a decrease in discharge due to a faster decrease in the catchment's snow-covered fraction and a trend towards earlier melt in the scenarios where radiative forcing from LAISI is applied. Using a reasonable estimate of critical model parameters, the model simulates realistic BC mixing ratios in surface snow with a strong annual cycle, showing increasing surface BC mixing ratios during spring melt as a consequence of melt amplification. However, we further identify large uncertainties in the representation of the surface BC mixing ratio during snowmelt and the subsequent consequences for the snowpack evolution.

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Evaluating the effect of snow and ice melt in an Alpine headwater catchment and further downstream in the River Rhine

Cited by 22 publications

References 21 publications

Modelling hydrologic impacts of light absorbing aerosol deposition on snow at the catchment scale

Modelling hydrologic impacts of light absorbing aerosol deposition on snow at the catchment scale

Future high-mountain hydrology: a new parameterization of glacier retreat

Modelling hydrologic impacts of light absorbing aerosol deposition on snow at the catchment scale

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