In winter and spring, ice-coast interactions driven by winds and ocean currents cause sea ice fractures (leads) to form repeatedly along Arctic coastlines. These events are often associated with rapid and expansive changes in sea ice drift and state that are challenging to predict and represent in models. We investigate...
Snow water equivalent (SWE) is a critical measurement in hydrology and water resources management. Microwave remote sensing can estimate snow water equivalent (SWE). However, the algorithms used to estimate SWE require snow grain size information. Thus, determining snow grain size is pertinent to estimate SWE. Currently, there are several models...
Leads are long fractures wide enough for a ship to travel through the ice pack. Sea ice acts as a barrier between the ocean and the atmosphere, whereas leads allow the transfer of heat and moisture between the two. Leads play a role for marine mammals and are hunting grounds...
Ice–ocean interactions have profound consequences for the ocean and climate, influencing the rate of sea level rise. Submarine melt is commonly parameterized using a three-equation formulation for the heat, salt, and momentum conservation equations coupled to a buoyant plume model, together called plume-melt theory. However, recent direct observations of terminus...
Forest canopy cover presents a major challenge for remote sensing of fractional snow-covered area (ƒSCA). Snow cover is systematically underestimated where satellites sensors cannot penetrate the forest canopy. Current canopy adjustments scale observable ƒSCA with the vegetation fraction, assuming that snow cover distributions are similar between sub-canopy and open locations....
Relatively little is known about how various factors influence snow water storage in forested mountain landscapes in maritime (warm winter) climates. This study took advantage of multiple snow data sources including long-term data, synoptic sampling, remote sensing, and modeling to examine factors influencing snow dynamics in the H.J. Andrews Experimental...
In the mountains of the Western US, shifts in the timing and magnitude of snow water equivalent (SWE) over the past century are well documented and attributed to climate warming, but the magnitude of sensitivity depends on elevation. We modeled the spatial distribution of SWE and its sensitivity to climate...
Funding agencies, specifically the National Science Foundation (NSF), are placing particular emphasis on the societal relevance and broader applications of scientific research, otherwise known as Broader Impacts (BIs). Scientists are required to address the BIs merit review criterion in their research proposals or they will not get funded. However, many...
Despite advances in the understanding of rain-on-snow storms and their resulting peak flows, little is understood about the response of snowmelt to precipitation and the relative timing of the two at multiple temporal scales within such events. To address this issue, climate, snowmelt, and streamflow data were analyzed for 26...