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...
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...
Climate model simulations and paleoclimate proxies are two tools that enable an understanding of the climate history of the Earth. When utilized together, they form a powerful paradigm for understanding past changes. Proxies are the only physical link to the past conditions on Earth, and models “fill in the gaps”...
Ice-penetrating radar produces detailed images of the internal ice layers in a glacier. Because the layers form from each year's snowfall, the curving of the internal layers is a record of the climate conditions that the glacier experienced as it flowed throughout the millennia. The Hiawatha Glacier lies on top...
Recent observations of tidewater glaciers find that the currently accepted model for predicting ice melt vastly underestimates observed melt rates. The release of pressurized air bubbles into the ocean from pores in the ice is one process that can amplify glacier melt. To incorporate this process into models, we need...
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...
The global cryosphere, defined as the world’s ice and snow covered regions, is a crucial water source for society and ecosystem functions, as well as an important regulator of the earth’s energy budget. Melt from glaciers and seasonal snow cover provides water for more than a sixth of the world’s...
Arctic-boreal regions are exhibiting the symptoms of profound ecological shifts as they experience pronounced warming. Wildlife in high-latitudes are one such harbinger of change, and their populations are undergoing range-shifts, declines, and extinctions in response to their rapidly altering habitats. As the circumpolar and boreal north is snow-covered for up...
Changes in glacier length reflect the integrated response to local fluctuations in temperature and precipitation, but when do such changes indicate forced climate change, and when do they indicate natural variability? In this study, we simulate the past ~1000 years of glacier length variability across the globe using the 3-stage...
The topics in this dissertation center on the snow processes that dominate mountain environments in the Western U.S. and Alaska, particularly in locations lacking long-term observational datasets or locales that are difficult to access in-person. Some are currently glacierized or have been glaciated in the recent past. Each of the...