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Spatiotemporal Variability of Snow Depletion Curves Derived from SNODAS for the Conterminous United States, 2004‐2013
Author(s) -
Driscoll Jessica M.,
Hay Lauren E.,
Bock Andrew R.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
jawra journal of the american water resources association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.957
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1752-1688
pISSN - 1093-474X
DOI - 10.1111/1752-1688.12520
Subject(s) - snowmelt , snow , environmental science , watershed , climate change , geospatial analysis , hydrology (agriculture) , scale (ratio) , snowpack , spatial variability , hydrological modelling , climatology , physical geography , meteorology , geography , geology , remote sensing , statistics , cartography , oceanography , geotechnical engineering , mathematics , machine learning , computer science
Assessment of water resources at a national scale is critical for understanding their vulnerability to future change in policy and climate. Representation of the spatiotemporal variability in snowmelt processes in continental‐scale hydrologic models is critical for assessment of water resource response to continued climate change. Continental‐extent hydrologic models such as the U.S. Geological Survey National Hydrologic Model ( NHM ) represent snowmelt processes through the application of snow depletion curves ( SDC s). SDC s relate normalized snow water equivalent ( SWE ) to normalized snow covered area ( SCA ) over a snowmelt season for a given modeling unit. SDC s were derived using output from the operational Snow Data Assimilation System ( SNODAS ) snow model as daily 1‐km gridded SWE over the conterminous United States. Daily SNODAS output were aggregated to a predefined watershed‐scale geospatial fabric and used to also calculate SCA from October 1, 2004 to September 30, 2013. The spatiotemporal variability in SNODAS output at the watershed scale was evaluated through the spatial distribution of the median and standard deviation for the time period. Representative SDC s for each watershed‐scale modeling unit over the conterminous United States ( n = 54,104) were selected using a consistent methodology and used to create categories of snowmelt based on SDC shape. The relation of SDC categories to the topographic and climatic variables allow for national‐scale categorization of snowmelt processes.