scholarly journals Variability in Soil Moisture by Natural and Artificial Snow: A Case Study in Mt. Balwang Area, Gangwon-do, South Korea

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yalalt Nyamgerel ◽  
Hyejung Jung ◽  
Dong-Chan Koh ◽  
Kyung-Seok Ko ◽  
Jeonghoon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Hydrological Processes ◽  
Soil Freezing ◽  
Freezing And Thawing ◽  
Natural Snow

Soil moisture is an important variable for understanding hydrological processes, and the year-round monitoring of soil moisture and temperature reflect the variations induced by snow cover and its melt. Herein, we monitored the soil moisture and temperature in high (two sites) and low (two sites) elevation regions with groundwater sampling near the Mt. Balwang area in Gangwon-do, South Korea from Sep 2020 to May 2021. This study aims to investigate the temporal and spatial variations in soil moisture and temperature due to snow (natural and artificial snow) and its melt. A ski resort has been operating in this area and has been producing artificial snow during winter periods; thus, the spring snowmelt comprises both natural and artificial snow. The effect of soil freezing and thawing, wind conditions, vegetation covers, the timing and intensity of snow cover and snowmelt were differed in the monitoring sites. The high elevation sites 1 and 2 exhibit the relatively longer and consistent snow cover than the low elevation sites. Particularly, site 2 show late (May 8) snow melting even this site is in south slope of the Mt. Balwang. The relatively steady and moist soil layers at sites 1, 2, and 3 during the warm period can be considered as influential points to groundwater recharge. Moreover, the differences between the mean δ18O (−9.89‰) of the artificial snow layers and other samples were low: in the order of surface water (0.04‰) >groundwater (−0.66 and −1.01‰) >natural snow (1.34 and −3.80‰). This indicates that the imprint of artificial snow derived from surface water and with decreasing amount of natural snow around the Mt. Balwang region, the results support the assumption that the potential influence of artificial snowmelt on groundwater quality. This study helps to understand the snow dynamic and its influence on the hydrological processes in this region by combining the hydro-chemical and isotopic analysis.

scholarly journals GEOtop 2.0: simulating the combined energy and water balance at and below the land surface accounting for soil freezing, snow cover and terrain effects

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 2831-2857 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Endrizzi ◽  
S. Gruber ◽  
M. Dall'Amico ◽  
R. Rigon
Keyword(s):  
Snow Cover ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Soil Freezing ◽  
Energy Budgets ◽  
Freezing And Thawing ◽  
Terrain Effects ◽  
Synthetic Simulation ◽  
Soil Freezing And Thawing

Abstract. GEOtop is a fine-scale grid-based simulator that represents the heat and water budgets at and below the soil surface. It describes the three-dimensional water flow in the soil and the energy exchange with the atmosphere, considering the radiative and turbulent fluxes. Furthermore, it reproduces the highly non-linear interactions between the water and energy balance during soil freezing and thawing, and simulates the temporal evolution of the water and energy budgets in the snow cover and their effect on soil temperature. Here, we present the core components of GEOtop 2.0 and demonstrate its functioning. Based on a synthetic simulation, we show that the interaction of processes represented in GEOtop 2.0 can result in phenomena that are significant and relevant for applications involving permafrost and seasonally frozen soils, both in high altitude and latitude regions.

scholarly journals Geocryological conditions triggering thermokarst processes in Central Yakutia

2020 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 02007
Author(s):  
Nataliia Nesterova ◽  
Olga Makarieva ◽  
Alexander Fedorov ◽  
Andrey Shikhov
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Soil Freezing ◽  
Abrupt Increase ◽  
Landsat Images ◽  
Thermokarst Lakes ◽  
Central Yakutia ◽  
Snow Water

The use of the Central Yakutia Landsat images revealed an increase in the area of thermokarst lakes by two times for the Suola and Taatta River basins and a quarter times in the Tanda River basin during the period 2000-2019. The abrupt increase in the lakes area is due to shortterm periods of abnormal rising in the active layer temperature, which are caused by high values of snow water equivalent and total annual precipitation. Increased soil moisture and the warming effect of snow cover led to the decrease of the intensity of soil freezing and increase of the temperature of the ground top layer. The combination of these factors triggered the activation of thermokarst processes, which led to a sharp, more than 1.5 times, increase of the thermokarst lakes area in 2007-2008.

scholarly journals Influence of snow cover on soil freezing and thawing in the West Spitsbergen

2015 ◽  
Vol 124 (4) ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. Shmakin ◽  
N. I. Osokin ◽  
A. V. Sosnovsky ◽  
E. P. Zazovskaya ◽  
A. V. Borzenkova
Keyword(s):  
Snow Cover ◽  
Soil Freezing ◽  
Freezing And Thawing ◽  
The West ◽  
West Spitsbergen ◽  
Soil Freezing And Thawing

scholarly journals Monitoring soil moisture from middle to high elevation in Switzerland: Set-up and first results from the SOMOMOUNT network

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Pellet ◽  
Christian Hauck
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Time Domain Reflectometry ◽  
Swiss Alps ◽  
Freezing And Thawing ◽  
Altitudinal Distribution ◽  
Mountain Environments ◽  
Stability Of Slopes

Abstract. Besides its important role in the energy and water balance at the soil-atmosphere interface, soil moisture can be a particular important factor in mountain environments since it influences the amount of freezing and thawing in the subsurface and can affect the stability of slopes. In permafrost areas, it is strongly linked to the ground ice content and by this modifies the characteristics and behaviour of periglacial landforms. In spite of its importance, the technical challenges and its strong spatial variability usually prevents soil moisture from being measured operationally at high and/or middle altitudes. This study describes the new Swiss soil moisture monitoring network SOMOMOUNT launched in 2013 consisting in six entirely automated soil moisture stations distributed along an altitudinal gradient between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss Alps, ranging from 1205 m to 3410 m elevation. In addition to the standard instrumentation comprising Frequency Domain Reflectometry (FDR) and Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) sensors along vertical profiles, soil probes and meteorological data are available at each station. In this contribution we will present a detailed description of the SOMOMOUNT instrumentation and calibration procedures. Additionally, the data collected during the three first years of the project will be discussed in relation to their altitudinal distribution. Clear differences in soil moisture patterns are visible between sites with permanently and seasonally frozen as well as unfrozen ground conditions and can be related to several factors such as the subsurface composition (organic versus mineral), the elevation and the snow cover characteristics.

scholarly journals Monitoring soil moisture from middle to high elevation in Switzerland: set-up and first results from the SOMOMOUNT network

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 3199-3220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Pellet ◽  
Christian Hauck
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Time Domain Reflectometry ◽  
Swiss Alps ◽  
Freezing And Thawing ◽  
Altitudinal Distribution ◽  
Mountain Environments ◽  
Stability Of Slopes

Abstract. Besides its important role in the energy and water balance at the soil–atmosphere interface, soil moisture can be a particular important factor in mountain environments since it influences the amount of freezing and thawing in the subsurface and can affect the stability of slopes. In spite of its importance, the technical challenges and its strong spatial variability usually prevents soil moisture from being measured operationally at high and/or middle altitudes. This study describes the new Swiss soil moisture monitoring network SOMOMOUNT (soil moisture in mountainous terrain) launched in 2013. It consists of six entirely automated soil moisture stations distributed along an altitudinal gradient between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss Alps, ranging from 1205 to 3410 m a.s.l. in elevation. In addition to the standard instrumentation comprising frequency domain sensor and time domain reflectometry (TDR) sensors along vertical profiles, soil probes and meteorological data are available at each station. In this contribution we present a detailed description of the SOMOMOUNT instrumentation and calibration procedures. Additionally, the liquid soil moisture (LSM) data collected during the first 3 years of the project are discussed with regard to their soil type and climate dependency as well as their altitudinal distribution. The observed elevation dependency of LSM is found to be non-linear, with an increase of the mean annual values up to  ∼  2000 m a.s.l. followed by a decreasing trend towards higher elevations. This altitude threshold marks the change between precipitation-/evaporation-controlled and frost-affected LSM regimes. The former is characterized by high LSM throughout the year and minimum values in summer, whereas the latter typically exhibits long-lasting winter minimum LSM values and high variability during the summer.

Improved characterization of frozen soil processes in the Versatile Soil Moisture Budget model

2013 ◽  
Vol 93 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Getachew A. Mohammed ◽  
Masaki Hayashi ◽  
Christopher R. Farrow ◽  
Yasuhide Takano
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Frozen Soil ◽  
Soil Freezing ◽  
Soil Processes ◽  
Moisture Budget ◽  
Freezing And Thawing ◽  
Budget Model ◽  
Soil Freezing And Thawing ◽  
Soil Moisture Budget

Mohammed, G. A., Hayashi, M., Farrow, C. R. and Takano, Y. 2013. Improved characterization of frozen soil processes in the Versatile Soil Moisture Budget model. Can. J. Soil Sci. 93: 511–531. Soil freezing and thawing influence the infiltration of rain and snow melt water and subsequent redistribution, runoff generation, and a host of other processes. Accurate characterization of frozen soil processes in hydrological models is important for their use in managing agricultural activities and water resources. The Versatile Soil Moisture Budget (VSMB) is a relatively simple soil water balance model, which has been widely used in Canada for several decades, but its application has primarily been for crop-growing seasons. We have modified the VSMB to include new algorithms for snow accumulation and melt, soil freezing and thawing, and snowmelt infiltration and runoff; and evaluated its performance using field data from a grassland site in Alberta. The new VSMB model simulates snow processes with reasonable accuracy and predicts the day of thawing within several days of observation. It also estimates the amount of runoff and its inter-annual variability reasonably well, although the model still has limitations in accurately predicting the vertical distribution of water content. Despite these limitations, the model will be useful for estimating the amount of snowmelt runoff that provides the critical water inputs to wetlands and dugouts, and for understanding the effects of landuse variability on these processes.

scholarly journals First Measurement of Soil Freeze/Thaw Cycles in the Tibetan Plateau Using CYGNSS GNSS-R Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 2361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuerui Wu ◽  
Zhounan Dong ◽  
Shuanggen Jin ◽  
Yang He ◽  
Yezhi Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Periodic Oscillation ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Soil Freezing ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Freezing And Thawing ◽  
Current Application ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Freeze Thaw

The process of soil freezing and thawing refers to the alternating phase change of liquid water and solid water in the soil, accompanied by a large amount of latent heat exchange. It plays a vital role in the land water process and is an important indicator of climate change. The Tibetan Plateau in China is known as the “roof of the world”, and it is one of the most prominent physical characteristics is the freezing and thawing process of the soil. For the first time, this paper utilizes the spaceborne GNSS-R mission, i.e., CYGNSS (Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System), to study the feasibility of monitoring the soil freeze-thaw (FT) cycles on the Tibetan Plateau. In the theoretical analysis part, model simulations show that there are abrupt changes in soil permittivities and surface reflectivities as the soil FT occurs. The CYGNSS reflectivities from January 2018 to January 2020 are compared with the SMAP FT state. The relationship between CYGNSS reflectivity and SMAP soil moisture within this time series is analyzed and compared. The results show that the effect of soil moisture on reflectivity is very small and can be ignored. The periodic oscillation change of CYGNSS reflectivity is almost the same as the changes in SMAP FT data. Freeze-thaw conversion is the main factor affecting CYGNSS reflectivity. The periodical change of CYGNSS reflectivity in the 2 years indicates that it is mainly caused by soil FT cycles. It is feasible to use CYGNSS to monitor the soil FT cycles in the Tibetan Plateau. This research expands the current application field of CYGNSS and opens a new chapter in the study of cryosphere using spaceborne GNSS-R with high spatial-temporal resolution.

scholarly journals GEOtop 2.0: simulating the combined energy and water balance at and below the land surface accounting for soil freezing, snow cover and terrain effects

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 6279-6341 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Endrizzi ◽  
S. Gruber ◽  
M. Dall'Amico ◽  
R. Rigon
Keyword(s):  
Snow Cover ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Soil Freezing ◽  
Subsurface Water ◽  
Energy Budgets ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Freezing And Thawing ◽  
Linear Interaction

Abstract. GEOtop is a small-scale grid-based simulator that represents the heat and water budgets at and below the soil surface. It represents the energy exchange with the atmosphere, considering the radiative and turbulent fluxes, and describes the three-dimensional subsurface water flow. Furthermore, it reproduces the highly non-linear interaction of the water and energy balance during soil freezing and thawing, and describes the temporal evolution of water and energy budgets in the snow cover and their effect on soil temperature. Here, we describe the core components of GEOtop 2.0 and demonstrate its functioning. Based on a synthetic simulation, we show that the interaction of processes represented in GEOtop 2.0 can result in phenomena that are significant and relevant for applications involving permafrost and seasonally-frozen soils, both in high altitude and latitude regions.

scholarly journals Hydrothermal Effects of Freeze-Thaw in the Taklimakan Desert

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1292
Author(s):  
Liu Xinchun ◽  
Kang Yongde ◽  
Chen Hongna ◽  
Lu Hui
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Moisture Content ◽  
Ambient Temperature ◽  
Soil Temperature ◽  
Soil Moisture Content ◽  
Soil Freezing ◽  
Taklimakan Desert ◽  
Freezing And Thawing ◽  
Freeze Thaw ◽  
The Taklimakan Desert

The Taklimakan Desert, also known as the “Sea of Death”, is the largest desert in China and also the world’s second largest remote desert. The road crossing the Taklimakan Desert is the longest desert road in the world and has been the center of the Silk Road since ancient times. Based on field observation data (November 2013 to May 2014) collected from the Tazhong and Xiaotang stations, we studied the interannual and diurnal variations of soil temperature, soil moisture content, and surface heat fluxes during different freezing and thawing periods. The annual and daily changes of soil temperature, soil moisture content, and surface energy fluxes at different freezing and thawing stages were analyzed. We illustrated the coupling relationship between water and heat in freezing-thawing soil in the Taklimakan Desert. We established a coupling model of soil water and heat during freezing and thawing. During the soil freezing period, the soil temperatures at different depths generally trended downward. The temperature difference between the Tazhong station and the Xiaotang station was 4~8.5 °C. The freezing time of soil at 20 cm depth occurred about 11 days after that at 10 cm depth. The effect of ambient temperature on soil temperature gradually weakened with the increase of soil depth. With the occurrence of the soil freezing process, the initial soil moisture contents at 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, and 40 cm depths at the Xiaotang station were 6%, 10%, 29%, and 59%, respectively, and those at the Tazhong station were 5%, 3.6%, 4.4%, and 5.8%, respectively. As the ambient temperature decreased, the freezing front continued to move downward and the liquid soil water content at each depth decreased. The desert highway is closely related to the economic development and prosperity of southern Xinjiang. Therefore, it is important to maintain and inspect the safety and applicability of freeze-thaw zones and avoid casualties from vehicles and personnel.

scholarly journals Influence of snow surface processes on soil moisture dynamics and streamflow generation in alpine catchments

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nander Wever ◽  
Francesco Comola ◽  
Mathias Bavay ◽  
Michael Lehning
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Soil Freezing ◽  
Distributed Model ◽  
Stream Network ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Soil Layers ◽  
Flood Risks ◽  
Moisture State

Abstract. The assessment of flood risks in alpine, snow covered catchments requires an understanding of the linkage between the snow cover, soil and discharge in the stream network. Here, we apply the comprehensive, distributed model Alpine3D to investigate the role of soil moisture in the predisposition of a catchment to high flows from rainfall and snow melt for the Dischma catchment in East Switzerland. The recently updated soil module of the physics based, multi-layer snow cover model SNOWPACK, which solves the surface energy and mass balance in Alpine3D, is verified against soil moisture measurements at seven sites and various depths inside and in close proximity of the Dischma catchment. Measurements and simulations in such terrain are difficult and consequently, soil moisture was simulated with varying degrees of success. Differences between simulated and measured soil moisture mainly arises from an overestimation of soil freezing and an absence of a ground water description in the model. Both were found to have an influence in the soil moisture measurements. Streamflow simulations performed with a spatially-explicit hydrological model using a travel time distribution approach coupled to Alpine3D provided a closer agreement with observed streamflow at the outlet of the Dischma catchment when including 30 cm of soil layers. Performance decreased when including 2 cm or 60 cm of soil layers. This demonstrates that the role of soil moisture is important to take into account when understanding the relationship between both snowpack runoff and rainfall and catchment discharge in high alpine terrain. Runoff coefficients (i.e., ratio of rainfall over discharge) based on measurements for high rainfall and snowmelt events were found to be dependent on the simulated initial soil moisture state at the onset of an event, further illustrating the important role of soil moisture for the hydrological processes in the catchment. The runoff coefficients using simulated discharge were found to reproduce this dependency and this shows that the Alpine3D model framework can be successfully applied to assess the predisposition of the catchment to flood risks from both snowmelt and rainfall events.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document