Identification

Title

Evaluating observational methods to quantify snow duration under diverse forest canopies

Abstract

Forests cover almost 40% of the seasonally snow-covered regions in North America. However, operational snow networks are located primarily in forest clearings, and optical remote sensing cannot see through tree canopies to detect forest snowpack. Due to the complex influence of the forest on snowpack duration, ground observations in forests are essential. We therefore consider the effectiveness of different strategies to observe snow-covered area under forests. At our study location in the Pacific Northwest, we simultaneously deployed fiber-optic cable, stand-alone ground temperature sensors, and time-lapse digital cameras in three diverse forest treatments: control second-growth forest, thinned forest, and forest gaps (one tree height in diameter). We derived fractional snow-covered area and snow duration metrics from the colocated instruments to assess optimal spatial resolution and sampling configuration, and snow duration differences between forest treatments. The fiber-optic cable and the cameras indicated that mean snow duration was 8 days longer in the gap plots than in the control plots (p < 0.001). We conducted Monte Carlo experiments for observing mean snow duration in a 40 m forest plot, and found the 95% confidence interval was ±5 days for 10 m spacing between instruments and ±3 days for 6 m spacing. We further tested the representativeness of sampling one plot per treatment group by observing snow duration across replicated forest plots at the same elevation, and at a set of forest plots 250 m higher. Relative relationships between snow duration in the forest treatments are consistent between replicated plots, elevation, and two winters of data.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7g1621c

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2015-02-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact