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The Role of Melting Snow in the Ocean Surface Heat Budget
Author(s) -
Duffy George,
Bennartz Ralf
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2018gl079182
Subject(s) - snow , northern hemisphere , flux (metallurgy) , environmental science , heat flux , climatology , latitude , atmospheric sciences , polar , satellite , geology , meteorology , heat transfer , geography , geodesy , materials science , physics , astronomy , aerospace engineering , engineering , metallurgy , thermodynamics
We estimate the cooling flux from snow melting in the ocean through CloudSat satellite snowfall retrievals and reanalysis data. For snowfall events with less than 0.01 mm/hr, this flux is inconsequential. Melting snow begins to compete with other ocean surface heat fluxes as snowfall rates increase beyond 0.1 mm/hr, and it may often become the dominant heat flux as snowfall rates approach and exceed 1 mm/hr. The largest monthly average values of the melting snow cooling flux occur in winter months, approaching −10 W/m 2 in both hemispheres. To determine the regional influence of melting snow on a seasonal basis, we calculate an impact metric that gauges the cooling flux of melting snow against the net flux in the ocean. This metric can be between 20% and 30% in the Northern Hemisphere during March, April, May; the Southern Ocean during March, April, May and September, October, November; and in high‐latitude polar oceans during sea ice freeze up seasons.