Snow in Lebanon: a preliminary study of snow cover over Mount Lebanon and a simple snowmelt model / Etude préliminaire du couvert neigeux et modèle de fonte des neige pour le Mont Liban

Aouad-Rizk, Angè; Job, Jean-Olivier; Khalil, Salim M.; Touma, Tarek; Bitar, Chadi; Boqcuillon, Claude; Najem, W.

doi:10.1623/hysj.50.3.555.65023

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Most of the precipitation occurs between January and March due to the influence of the Mediterranean climate, and therefore areas above 1200 m a.s.l. receive between 50 % and 67 % of their total annual precipitation as snow (Shaban et al, 2004;Aouad-Rizk et al, 2005;Mhawej et al, 2014;Telesca et al, 2014). Winter precipitation events are due to the orographic lifting of the cold northerly currents from the Anatolian plateau (Fish, 1944).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of liquid water percolation representation in estimating snow water equivalent in a Mediterranean mountain region (Mount Lebanon)

Fayad

Gascoin

2020

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. In many Mediterranean mountain regions, the seasonal snowpack is an essential yet poorly known water resource. Here, we examine, for the first time, the spatial distribution and evolution of the snow water equivalent (SWE) during three snow seasons (2013–2016) in the coastal mountains of Lebanon. We run SnowModel (Liston and Elder, 2006a), a spatially distributed, process-based snow model, at 100 m resolution forced by new automatic weather station (AWS) data in three snow-dominated basins of Mount Lebanon. We evaluate a recent upgrade of the liquid water percolation scheme in SnowModel, which was introduced to improve the simulation of the SWE and runoff in warm maritime regions. The model is evaluated against continuous snow depth and snow albedo observations at the AWS, manual SWE measurements, and MODIS snow cover area between 1200 and 3000 m a.s.l. The results show that the new percolation scheme yields better performance, especially in terms of SWE but also in snow depth and snow cover area. Over the simulation period between 2013 and 2016, the maximum snow mass was reached between December and March. Peak mean SWE (above 1200 m a.s.l.) changed significantly from year to year in the three study catchments, with values ranging between 73 and 286 mm w.e. (RMSE between 160 and 260 mm w.e.). We suggest that the major sources of uncertainty in simulating the SWE, in this warm Mediterranean climate, can be attributed to forcing error but also to our limited understanding of the separation between rain and snow at lower-elevations, the transient snowmelt events during the accumulation season, and the high variability of snow depth patterns at the subpixel scale due to the wind-driven blown-snow redistribution into karstic features and sinkholes. Yet, the use of a process-based snow model with minimal requirements for parameter estimation provides a basis to simulate snow mass SWE in nonmonitored catchments and characterize the contribution of snowmelt to the karstic groundwater recharge in Lebanon. While this research focused on three basins in the Mount Lebanon, it serves as a case study to highlight the importance of wet snow processes to estimate SWE in Mediterranean mountain regions.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of SCA is justified in the absence of distributed SWE or HS measurements to validate the model (e.g. Gascoin et al, 2015;Baba et al, 2018a).…”

Section: Model Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of liquid water percolation representation in estimating snow water equivalent in a Mediterranean mountain region (Mount Lebanon)

Fayad

Gascoin

2020

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…Lebanon and to the south is also expressed in the isotopic composition and amount of rainfall. The studies of Aouad-Rizk et al (2005), Gat et al (2003), andSaad et al (2005) showed more positive isotopic rainfall values and a lower rainfall amount toward the south, impacting the water balance (P-E) and effective infiltration in karstic systems along the Levantine coast and mountain chains.…”

Section: Current Climatic Settings Of the Levantmentioning

confidence: 98%

Climate variability in the northern Levant from the highly resolved Qadisha record (Lebanon) during the Holocene optimum

et al. 2023

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New stalagmites from Qadisha Cave (Lebanon) located at 1720 m above sea level provide a high-resolution and well-dated record for northern Mount Lebanon. The stalagmites grew discontinuously from 9.2 to 5.7 and at 3.5 ka, and they show a tendency to move from a more negative oxygen isotope signal at ~9.1 ka to a more positive signal at ~5.8 ka. Such a trend reflects a change from a wetter to a drier climate at high altitudes. The δ13C signal shows rapid shifts throughout the record and a decreasing trend toward more negative values in the mid-Holocene, suggesting enhanced soil activity. In the short-term trend, Qadisha stalagmites record rapid dry/wet changes on centennial scales, with a tendency to more rapid dry events toward the mid-Holocene. Such changes are characterized by overall good agreement between both geochemical proxies and stalagmite growth and might be affected by the seasonal variations in snow cover. The Qadisha record is in good agreement with other Levantine records, showing more humid conditions from 9 to 7 ka. After 7 ka, a drier climate seems to affect sites at both low- and high-altitude areas. The Qadisha record reflects uniquely mountainous climate characteristics compared with other records, specifically the effect of snow cover and its duration regulating the effective infiltration.

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“…Due to the influence of the Mediterranean climate (wet winter, dry summer) most of the precipitation above 1200 m a.s.l. falls as snow on Mount Lebanon (Shaban et al, 2004;Aouad-Rizk et al, 2005;Mhawej et al, 2014;UNDP, 2014). The average contribution of snowmelt to spring and river discharge in Mount Lebanon was estimated at 30 % by Telesca et al (2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although snow is recognized as a major component of the hydrologic system in Mount Lebanon (Shaban et al, 2004;Aouad-Rizk et al, 2005;Bakalowicz et al, 2008;Mhawej et al, 2014;Königer and Margane, 2014), the link between snowmelt and the hydrological processes remains poorly characterized on the basin scale. This can be attributed to the (1) lack of an operational snow observation network in Lebanon and (2) limited number of published basin-scale hydrometeorological datasets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Snow observations in Mount Lebanon (2011–2016)

Fayad

Gascoin

Faour

et al. 2017

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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Abstract. We present a unique meteorological and snow observational dataset in Mount Lebanon, a mountainous region with a Mediterranean climate, where snowmelt is an essential water resource. The study region covers the recharge area of three karstic river basins (total area of 1092 km 2 and an elevation up to 3088 m). The dataset consists of (1) continuous meteorological and snow height observations, (2) snowpack field measurements, and (3) medium-resolution satellite snow cover data. The continuous meteorological measurements at three automatic weather stations (MZA, 2296 m; LAQ, 1840 m; and CED, 2834 m a.s.l.) include surface air temperature and humidity, precipitation, wind speed and direction, incoming and reflected shortwave irradiance, and snow height, at 30 min intervals for the snow seasons (November-June) between 2011 and 2016 for MZA and between 2014 and 2016 for CED and LAQ. Precipitation data were filtered and corrected for Geonor undercatch. Observations of snow height (HS), snow water equivalent, and snow density were collected at 30 snow courses located at elevations between 1300 and 2900 m a.s.l. during the two snow seasons of 2014-2016 with an average revisit time of 11 days. Daily gap-free snow cover extent (SCA) and snow cover duration (SCD) maps derived from MODIS snow products are provided for the same period (2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016). We used the dataset to characterize mean snow height, snow water equivalent (SWE), and density for the first time in Mount Lebanon. Snow seasonal variability was characterized with high HS and SWE variance and a relatively high snow density mean equal to 467 kg m −3 . We find that the relationship between snow depth and snow density is specific to the Mediterranean climate. The current model explained 34 % of the variability in the entire dataset (all regions between 1300 and 2900 m a.s.l.) and 62 % for high mountain regions (elevation 2200-2900 m a.s.l.). The dataset is suitable for the investigation of snow dynamics and for the forcing and validation of energy balance models. Therefore, this dataset bears the potential to greatly improve the quantification of snowmelt and mountain hydrometeorological processes in this data-scarce region of the eastern Mediterranean.

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Snow in Lebanon: a preliminary study of snow cover over Mount Lebanon and a simple snowmelt model / Etude préliminaire du couvert neigeux et modèle de fonte des neige pour le Mont Liban

Cited by 18 publications

References 11 publications

The role of liquid water percolation representation in estimating snow water equivalent in a Mediterranean mountain region (Mount Lebanon)

The role of liquid water percolation representation in estimating snow water equivalent in a Mediterranean mountain region (Mount Lebanon)

Climate variability in the northern Levant from the highly resolved Qadisha record (Lebanon) during the Holocene optimum

Snow observations in Mount Lebanon (2011–2016)

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