scholarly journals Variation in Rising Limb of Colorado River Snowmelt Runoff Hydrograph Controlled by Dust Radiative Forcing in Snow

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 797-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Painter ◽  
S. McKenzie Skiles ◽  
Jeffrey S. Deems ◽  
W. Tyler Brandt ◽  
Jeff Dozier
Keyword(s):  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Snowmelt Runoff ◽  
Runoff Hydrograph

scholarly journals Combined impacts of current and future dust deposition and regional warming on Colorado River Basin snow dynamics and hydrology

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (11) ◽  
pp. 4401-4413 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Deems ◽  
T. H. Painter ◽  
J. J. Barsugli ◽  
J. Belnap ◽  
B. Udall
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Climate Forcing ◽  
Flow Volume ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Climate Scenarios ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
Snow Albedo ◽  
Dust Loading

Abstract. The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people in seven western states and two countries and to 5.5 million irrigated acres. The river has long been overallocated. Climate models project runoff losses of 5–20% from the basin by mid-21st century due to human-induced climate change. Recent work has shown that decreased snow albedo from anthropogenic dust loading to the CO mountains shortens the duration of snow cover by several weeks relative to conditions prior to western expansion of the US in the mid-1800s, and advances peak runoff at Lees Ferry, Arizona, by an average of 3 weeks. Increases in evapotranspiration from earlier exposure of soils and germination of plants have been estimated to decrease annual runoff by more than 1.0 billion cubic meters, or ~5% of the annual average. This prior work was based on observed dust loadings during 2005–2008; however, 2009 and 2010 saw unprecedented levels of dust loading on snowpacks in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB), being on the order of 5 times the 2005–2008 loading. Building on our prior work, we developed a new snow albedo decay parameterization based on observations in 2009/10 to mimic the radiative forcing of extreme dust deposition. We convolve low, moderate, and extreme dust/snow albedos with both historic climate forcing and two future climate scenarios via a delta method perturbation of historic records. Compared to moderate dust, extreme dust absorbs 2× to 4× the solar radiation, and shifts peak snowmelt an additional 3 weeks earlier to a total of 6 weeks earlier than pre-disturbance. The extreme dust scenario reduces annual flow volume an additional 1% (6% compared to pre-disturbance), a smaller difference than from low to moderate dust scenarios due to melt season shifting into a season of lower evaporative demand. The sensitivity of flow timing to dust radiative forcing of snow albedo is maintained under future climate scenarios, but the sensitivity of flow volume reductions decreases with increased climate forcing. These results have implications for water management and suggest that dust abatement efforts could be an important component of any climate adaptation strategies in the UCRB.

The use of satellite information for precomputing the snowmelt runoff hydrograph

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (9) ◽  
pp. 630-637
Author(s):  
L. S. Kuchment ◽  
A. N. Gel’fan ◽  
V. N. Demidov ◽  
P. Yu. Romanov
Keyword(s):  
Snowmelt Runoff ◽  
Runoff Hydrograph ◽  
Satellite Information

scholarly journals Impact of dust radiative forcing in snow on accuracy of operational runoff prediction in the Upper Colorado River Basin

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (15) ◽  
pp. 3945-3949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann C. Bryant ◽  
Thomas H. Painter ◽  
Jeffrey S. Deems ◽  
Stacie M. Bender
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Colorado River Basin ◽  
Upper Colorado River Basin ◽  
Runoff Prediction

scholarly journals Combined impacts of current and future dust deposition and regional warming on Colorado River Basin snow dynamics and hydrology

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 6237-6275 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Deems ◽  
T. H. Painter ◽  
J. J. Barsugli ◽  
J. Belnap ◽  
B. Udall
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Climate Forcing ◽  
Flow Volume ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Climate Scenarios ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
Snow Albedo ◽  
Dust Loading

Abstract. The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people in seven states and two countries and to 5.5 million irrigated acres. The river has long been overallocated. Climate models project runoff losses of 5–20% from the basin by mid-21st century due to human-induced climate change. Recent work has shown that decreased snow albedo from anthropogenic dust loading to the CO mountains shortens the duration of snow cover by several weeks relative to conditions prior to white settlement of the western US, and advances peak runoff at Lees Ferry, Arizona by an average of 3 weeks. Increases in evapotranspiration from earlier exposure of soils and germination of plants have been estimated to decrease annual runoff by more than 1.0 billion cubic meters or ~ 5% of the annual average. This prior work was based on observed dust loadings during 2005–2008; however, 2009 and 2010 saw unprecedented levels of dust loading on snowpacks in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB), being on the order of 5 times the 2005–2008 loading. Building on our prior work, we developed a new snow albedo decay parameterization based on observations in 2009/2010 to mimic the radiative forcing of extreme dust deposition. We convolve low, moderate, and extreme dust/snow albedos with both historic climate forcing and two future climate scenarios via a delta method perturbation of historic records. Compared to moderate dust, extreme dust absorbs 2 × to 4 × the solar radiation, and shifts peak snowmelt an additional 3 weeks earlier to a total of 6 weeks earlier than pre-disturbance. The extreme dust scenario reduces annual flow volume an additional 1% (6% compared to pre-disturbance), a smaller difference than from low to moderate due to melt season shifting into a season of lower evaporative demand. The sensitivity of flow timing to dust radiative forcing of snow albedo is maintained under future climate scenarios, but the sensitivity of flow volume reductions decreases with increased climate forcing. These results have implications for water management and suggest that dust abatement efforts could be an important component of any climate adaptation strategies in the UCRB.

scholarly journals Response of Colorado River runoff to dust radiative forcing in snow

2010 ◽  
Vol 107 (40) ◽  
pp. 17125-17130 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. H. Painter ◽  
J. S. Deems ◽  
J. Belnap ◽  
A. F. Hamlet ◽  
C. C. Landry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Runoff ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Colorado River

scholarly journals Dust radiative forcing in snow of the Upper Colorado River Basin: 2. Interannual variability in radiative forcing and snowmelt rates

2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. McKenzie Skiles ◽  
Thomas H. Painter ◽  
Jeffrey S. Deems ◽  
Ann C. Bryant ◽  
Christopher C. Landry
Keyword(s):  
Interannual Variability ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Colorado River Basin ◽  
Upper Colorado River Basin

scholarly journals Dust radiative forcing in snow of the Upper Colorado River Basin: 1. A 6 year record of energy balance, radiation, and dust concentrations

2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Painter ◽  
S. McKenzie Skiles ◽  
Jeffrey S. Deems ◽  
Ann C. Bryant ◽  
Christopher C. Landry
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Colorado River Basin ◽  
Upper Colorado River Basin

Snowmelt runoff modeling in a balsam fir forest with a variable source area simulator (VSAS2)

1990 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 1067-1077 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Prevost
Keyword(s):  
Source Area ◽  
Balsam Fir ◽  
Snowmelt Runoff ◽  
Variable Source ◽  
Runoff Modeling ◽  
Variable Source Area

The Impact of Dust Storms on Aerosol Optical Depth and Radiative Forcing

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Monim Jiboori ◽  
Nadia Abed ◽  
Mohamed Abdel Wahab
Keyword(s):  
Aerosol Optical Depth ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
The Impact
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