Changing climate in the Arctic leads to a shorter snow season but deeper snow in the depths of winter. Under the insulating snow, biological processes are accelerated leading to higher nutrient availability and carbon losses.
snow
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Summer Fire Means Winter Melt
Changing wildfire activity in California may impact seasonal hydrology by causing intense snowmelt during winter in areas where fires extend into higher elevation zones.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Streamflow Drought Intensification in the European Alps
A five-decade analysis of drought generation processes in the Alps shows their changing seasonality in high-elevation basins with increasingly frequent droughts caused by a lack of snowmelt water.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Measuring the Microstructure of Snow from Space
There is more to snow than flakes. Microwave measurements are shown to be capable of illuminating the microstructure of snow in ways that will improve our ability to monitor snow fields from space.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Wildfires Affect Snow in the American West
Data from 45 burned sites help researchers better understand climate change and wildfires’ impact on snowpack.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
It’s Cool to be Short When You’re in the Arctic Permafrost
Extensive ground temperature measurements complicate our understanding of how vegetation cover, snow duration, and microtopography influence the pace of permafrost thaw in a changing climate.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Mountains Undergo Enhanced Impacts of Climate Change
As climate change persists, amplified temperature increases in mountains and changes in precipitation will diminish snow and ice.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Trees Wearing Accelerometers Help Track Snowstorms
This device allows scientists to measure how much snow is trapped in canopies and predict changes to snowpack—a critical factor in annual water availability.
Posted inNews
Mars’s Dust Cycle Controls Its Polar Vortex and Snowfall
On Earth, the water cycle is a dominant climate force. On Mars, it’s the dust.
Posted inNews
The Alps Are Dusted with Nanoplastics
A new study finds the lofted pollutants came from major European cities, but further study is required to fully understand the plastics’ transport and deposition processes.