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An observational study of snow aging and the seasonal variation of snow albedo by using data from Col de Porte, France

  • Article
  • Atmospheric Science
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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

An 18-year long (1993–2011) comprehensive dataset of snow and meteorological variables from Col de Porte, France is used to analyze the variation of shortwave broadband albedo with elapsed time after snowfalls (snow aging) during each snow season. The effects of air temperature, snow surface temperature and snow depth on snow albedo are investigated. An index based on the accumulation of air temperature over several consecutive days with daily mean higher than 2.5 °C is proposed to divide each snow-covered period into a dry and the following wet snow season when this index reaches 18 °C. The results indicate that snow surface albedo decreases exponentially with time in both dry and wet snow seasons. Snow albedo reduction with snow aging is small at low surface temperature and the reduction rate increases with the rise of surface temperature. However, the reduction rate is widely scattered within the observed range of temperature, implying a loose relationship between snow albedo and snow surface temperature. Snow albedo in wet snow season is generally smaller and decreases faster than in dry snow season. For Col de Porte site, snow depths to effectively mask the underlying surface are 21 and 33 cm in dry and wet snow season respectively.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Major National Scientific Research Project on Global Changes (2010CB951902), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40975042 and 41175005). Suggestions to improve this manuscript from Professor Jiming Jin of the Utah State University are highly appreciated.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Ajiao Chen

  2. National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Weiping Li & Weijing Li

  3. Laboratory for Climate Studies, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Weiping Li & Weijing Li

  4. Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xin Liu

Authors
  1. Ajiao Chen
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  2. Weiping Li
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  3. Weijing Li
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  4. Xin Liu
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Correspondence to Weiping Li.

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Chen, A., Li, W., Li, W. et al. An observational study of snow aging and the seasonal variation of snow albedo by using data from Col de Porte, France. Chin. Sci. Bull. 59, 4881–4889 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0429-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0429-9

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