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Abstract:
Spring snow melt plays a vital role in water resources; however, snow depletion by sublimation removes water before it is available for streams. The magnitude of sublimation is not well known, nor are the specific atmospheric conditions that lead to control it or how it will change in the future. The Sublimation of Snow (SOS) project is helping to understand the controls on sublimation using dense array of instrumentation in Colorado in the 2022-23 winter season. This will create a dataset that can test numerical models and highlight pathways to improve them. We are focused on the role of wind in sublimation, both in low-wind conditions where turbulence and stability compete, and higher-wind conditions when blowing snow factors in. In a future, warmer climate, it is likely that the atmospheric surface layer stability will increase and wind redistribution will be limited by increasing snow surface cohesion. However, this is offset by increases in sublimation and evaporation caused by increasing available energy and atmospheric demand. SOS measurements of turbulent fluxes along with snow depth and blowing snow characteristics will help to disentangle these competing factors. We present the deployment, and initial results showing measurements of blowing snow from lidars and the link between blowing snow and sublimation at the site. Finally we relate blowing snow fluxes to near surface air temperature and humidity to start to address the role climate change will have on snow sublimation.
