DOI: 10.5194/tc-15-3813-2021
论文题名: Synoptic control on snow avalanche activity in central Spitsbergen
作者: Hancock H. ; Hendrikx J. ; Eckerstorfer M. ; Wickström S.
刊名: Cryosphere
ISSN: 19940416
出版年: 2021
卷: 15, 期: 8 起始页码: 3813
结束页码: 3837
语种: 英语
英文摘要: Atmospheric circulation exerts an important control on a region's snow avalanche activity by broadly determining the mountain weather patterns that influence snowpack development and avalanche release. In central Spitsbergen, the largest island in the High Arctic Svalbard archipelago, avalanches are a common natural hazard throughout the winter months. Previous work has identified a unique snow climate reflecting the region's climatically dynamic environmental setting but has not specifically addressed the synoptic-scale control of atmospheric circulation on avalanche activity here. In this work, we investigate atmospheric circulation's control on snow avalanching in the Nordenskiöld Land region of central Spitsbergen by first constructing a four-season (2016/2017-2019/2020) regional avalanche activity record using observations available on a database used by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE). We then analyze the synoptic atmospheric conditions on days with differing avalanche activity situations. Our results show atmospheric circulation conducive to elevated precipitation, wind speeds, and air temperatures near Svalbard are associated with increased avalanche activity in Nordenskiöld Land, but different synoptic signals exist for days characterized by dry, mixed, and wet avalanche activity. Differing upwind conditions help further explain differences in the frequency and nature of avalanche activity resulting from these various atmospheric circulation patterns. We further employ a daily atmospheric circulation calendar to help contextualize our results in the growing body of literature related to climate change in this location. This work helps expand our understanding of snow avalanches in Svalbard to a broader spatial scale and provides a basis for future work investigating the impacts of climate change on avalanche activity in Svalbard and other locations where avalanche regimes are impacted by changing climatic and synoptic conditions. © 2021 Holt Hancock et al. Citation statistics:
资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/164703
Appears in Collections: 气候变化与战略
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作者单位: Department of Arctic Geology, University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen, 9171, Norway; Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0371, Norway; Snow and Avalanche Lab, Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, P.O. Box 173480, Bozeman, MT 59717, United States; Regional Climate Lab., Climate Department, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, Bergen, 5838, Norway; Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, 5007, Norway; Department of Arctic Geophysics, University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen, 9171, Norway
Recommended Citation:
Hancock H.,Hendrikx J.,Eckerstorfer M.,et al. Synoptic control on snow avalanche activity in central Spitsbergen[J]. Cryosphere,2021-01-01,15(8)