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PROJECT SUMMARY
Intellectual merit: Temperature and precipitation are the most important metrics of climate change, yet a strong case can be made that our ability to produce accurate and reliable records of arctic precipitation is poor. The root of the problem is that for 8 to 10 months of the year, precipitation falls as a solid (snow, hail, diamond dust, sleet, and rime). Wind, drifting snow, and the propensity for snow to stick to gauges, combine to make monitoring solid precipitation a difficult task. In addition, solid precipitation accumulates and forms a long-lasting snow cover that, if anything, impacts the arctic system even more than the precipitation amount. Both snowfall and snow on the ground are changing, yet we are in a poor position to monitor this change. Part of the problem is that winter precipitation and snow on the ground re currently monitored by two separate systems. Here we propose a prototype international network where we will measure snowfall and snow on the ground concurrently, thereby improving our ability to monitor both of these better. At 5 arctic sites (all identified as key locations in a pan-arctic monitoring network), we will augment existing meteorological and snow measuring instrumentation with solid-state snow pillows, heated plate precipitation sensors, snow fences (to capture the wind-blown flux), and eddy orrelation towers for computation of sublimation. Several times a winter at the sites we will conduct ground surveys of snow cover depth, water equivalent, and other properties using tools that allow rapid collection of extensive data. These will be augmented with aerial photography and airborne remote sensing from inexpensive platforms (kites and UAVs) to visualize drift and deposition patterns. The combined suite of instruments and measurements is designed to allow us to close the winter water balance at each site, for the first time balancing the precipitation with measured accumulation. Using a set of modeling tools (e.g., a melt model, and a transport model for blowing snow), we will a) develop methods nd algorithms for quality checking both meteorological and snow data by cross-comparison between sensors and instruments, b) close the water balance in a way that produces more accurate values of winter precipitation and snow on the ground than are currently being collected, and c) apply our methodology to historical data from the existing gauge network to produce better estimates of past trends. Our effort, or one like it, is essential if we are to understand arctic precipitation and snow cover trends.
Broader impacts: The proposed project will substantially advance our understanding of how best to monitor arctic precipitation and will result in better knowledge of the spatial and historic trends in arctic winter precipitation and snow cover. Within the U.S., this understanding will directly benefit the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), one of the prime agencies charged with monitoring precipitation and snow cover, because they are a partner in the project. Similarly, the results of the project will have impact in Canada and Russia, where our partners are the agencies charged with arctic precipitation monitoring (Environment Canada and Roshydromet). Collectively, we will form an international arctic snow cover and winter precipitation group that can address the challenges of producing high quality assessments of arctic winter weather trends together. Specifically, as result of the proposed work, this group will a) identify the environmental conditions under which instruments become unreliable and learn how to flag these in the operational records, and b) identify favorable pairings of instruments that facilitate quality checking and which, when used in tandem, produce better data from both instruments. In addition, the project will contribute to the education of a graduate student, and will have direct impact on the general public through the publication of an English-Inupiat glossary of snow terms that will be used in the North Slope Borough School District Bilingual Education Program.
Relevance to IPY: Arctic precipitation and snow cover know no international boundaries. If we want to understand pan-arctic climate trends and feedbacks, we have to ensure that all the arctic nations are onitoring this critical component of the arctic system accurately and reliably. That is why the proposed project is international in scope (U.S.-Japan-Canada-Russia). It also directly addresses the National esearch Council's No. 1 recommendation for IPY of assessing large-scale environmental change in the Polar Regions, and will leave a legacy of improved monitoring sites across the Arctic.
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