Publications related to National Snow and Ice Data Center

Three-dimensional and real-scale modeling of flow regimes in dense snow avalanches

Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Betty Sovilla, Xingyue Li

Snow avalanches cause fatalities and economic loss worldwide and are one of the most dangerous gravitational hazards in mountainous regions. Various flow behaviors have been reported in snow avalanches, making them challenging to be thoroughly understood a ...

2021

The mechanical origin of snow avalanche dynamics and flow regime transitions

Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Betty Sovilla, Xingyue Li

Snow avalanches cause fatalities and economic damage. Key to their mitigation is the understanding of snow avalanche dynamics. This study investigates the dynamic behavior of snow avalanches, using the material point method (MPM) and an elastoplastic const ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2020

Simulation of snow management in Alpine ski resorts using three different snow models

Michael Lehning, Mathias Thierry Pierre Bavay

Snow management, i. e., snowmaking and grooming, is an integral part of modern ski resort management. While the current snow cover distribution on the slopes is often well known thanks to the usage of advanced monitoring techniques, information about its f ...

ELSEVIER2020

Version 1 of a sea ice module for the physics-based, detailed, multi-layer SNOWPACK model

Michael Lehning, Katherine Colby Leonard, Nander Wever

Sea ice is an important component of the global climate system. The presence of a snowpack covering sea ice can strongly modify the thermodynamic behavior of the sea ice, due to the low thermal conductivity and high albedo of snow. The snowpack can be stra ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2020

Implications of observation-enhanced energy-balance snowmelt simulations for runoff modeling of Alpine catchments

Alain Michel Prenleloup, Tobias Jonas

Snow is an important component of the water balance of many mountain watersheds worldwide. In a warming climate, snowmelt modeling and consequent soil water input, is often challenged by complex conditions such as rain-on-snow situations. This is why detai ...

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2019

The European mountain cryosphere: a review of its current state, trends, and future challenges

Michael Lehning, Wolf Hendrik Huwald

The mountain cryosphere of mainland Europe is recognized to have important impacts on a range of environmental processes. In this paper, we provide an overview on the current knowledge on snow, glacier, and permafrost processes, as well as their past, curr ...

2018

Upscaling the evolution of snow microstructure : from 4D image analysis to rigorous models

Quirien Eibhilín Krol

Snow microstructure and its evolution play an important role for various applications of snow physics in cryospheric sciences. The main modes of microstructure evolution in snow are referred to as isothermal and temperature gradient metamorphism. The forme ...

EPFL2017

A two-layer canopy model with thermal inertia for an improved snowpack energy balance below needleleaf forest (model SNOWPACK, version 3.2.1, revision 741)

Michael Lehning, Isabelle Amandine Gouttevin, Tobias Jonas

A new, two-layer canopy module with thermal inertia as part of the detailed snow model SNOWPACK (version 3.2.1) is presented and evaluated. As a by-product of these new developments, an exhaustive description of the canopy module of the SNOWPACK model is p ...

Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh2015

Seasonal and diurnal cycles of liquid water in snow—Measurements and modeling

Nander Wever

Evaluating and improving snow models and outflow predictions for hydrological applications is hindered by the lack of continuous data on bulk volumetric liquid water content (θw) and storage capacity of the melting snowpack. The combination of upward looki ...

Amer Geophysical Union2015

Evaluation of modelled snow depth and snow water equivalent at three contrasting sites in Switzerland using SNOWPACK simulations driven by different meteorological data input

Michael Lehning, Charles Fierz

The knowledge of certain snow indices such as the number of snow days, maximum snow depth and snow water equivalent or the date of snow disappearance is important for many economical and ecological applications. However, snow data are frequently not availa ...

Elsevier2014

Event-driven deposition of snow on the Antarctic Plateau: analyzing field measurements with SNOWPACK

Michael Lehning, Charles Fierz

Antarctic surface snow has been studied by means of continuous measurements and observations over a period of 3 yr at Dome C. Snow observations include solid deposits in form of precipitation, diamond dust, or hoar, snow temperatures at several depths, rec ...

Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh2013