Forest canopy reduces shortwave radiation and increases the incoming longwave radiation to snowpacks beneath forest canopies. Furthermore, the effect of forest canopy may be changed by complex topography. In this paper, we measured and simulated the incoming longwave radiation to snow beneath forest at different canopy openness in the west Tianshan Mountains, China(43°16'N, 84°24'E) during spring 2013. A sensitivity study was conducted to explore the way that terrain influenced the incoming longwave radiation to snow beneath forest canopies. In the simulation model, measurement datasets, including air temperature, incoming shortwave radiation above canopy, and longwave radiation enhanced by adjacent terrain, were applied to calculate the incoming longwave radiation to snow beneath forest canopy. The simulation results were consistent with the measurements on hourly scale and daily scale. The effect of longwave radiation enhanced by terrain was important than that of shortwave radiation above forest canopy with different openness except the 20% canopy openness. The longwave radiation enhanced due to adjacent terrain increases with the slope increase and temperature rise. When air temperature(or slope) is relatively low, thelongwave radiation enhanced by adjacent terrain is not sensitive to slope(or air temperature), but the sensitivity increases with the decrease of snow cover area on sunny slope. The effect of longwave radiation is especially sensitive when the snow cover on sunny slope melts completely. The effect of incoming shortwave radiation reflected by adjacent terrain on incoming longwave radiation to snow beneath forest canopies is more slight than that of the enhanced longwave radiation.
Snowpack is a combination of several snow layers. Accordingly, snowpack natural metamorphism is composed of several stages. The aim of this study is to investigate the natural snow metamorphism at the snow layer unit. The field investigation was conducted at the Tianshan Station for Snow Cover and Avalanche Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences(43°16' N, 84°24' E, and 1,776 m a.s.l.), during the winter of 2010-2011. A complete metamorphic procedure and the corresponding microstructure of a target snow layer were tracked. The results indicate that: the ideal and complete metamorphic process and the corresponding predominant snow grain shape have 5 stages: 1) unstable kinetic metamorphism near the surface; 2) unstable kinetic metamorphism under pressure; 3) stable kinetic metamorphism; 4) equilibrium metamorphism; 5) wet snow metamorphism. Snow grain size sharply decreased in the surface stage, and then changed to continuously increase. Rapid increase of grain size occurred in the stable kinetic metamorphism and wet snow metamorphism stage. The characteristic length was introduced to represent the real sizes of depth hoar crystals. The snow grain circularity ratio had a variation of "rapid increase–slow decrease–slow increase", and the snow aggregations continuously increased with time. Snow density grew stepwise and remained steady from the stable kinetic to the equilibrium metamorphism stage. The differences in metamorphism extent and stages among snow layers, led to the characteristic layered structure of snowpack.
HONG WenWEI Wen-shouLIU Ming-zheLU HengHAN XiZHANG Yan-wei
In this study, meteorological factors and snowmelt rate at an open site on sunny slope(OPS) and beneath forest canopy openness on shady slope(BFC) were measured using an automatic weather station and snow lysimeter during the snowmelt period in 2009, 2010 and 2013. The energy budget over snow surface was calculated according to these meteorological datasets. The analysis results indicated that the net shortwave radiation(K) and sensible heat flux(H) were energy sources, and the latent heat flux(LVE) was energy sinks of snow surfaces at all sites. The net longwave radiation(L) was energy sink at OPS and 80% BFC, but energy source at 20% BFC. The gain of K, H, and the loss of LVE at BFC were obviously lower than those at OPS. The L was the maximum difference of energy budget between snow surface at BFC and OPS. In warm and wet years, the most important factor of the energy budget variation at OPS was air humidity and the second mostimportant factor was air temperature. However, the ground surface temperature on the sunny slope was the most important factor for L and energy budget at BFC. With the increases in forest canopy openness and the slope of adjacent terrains, the influences of ground surface temperature on the sunny slope on L and the energy budget over snow surface at BFC increased, especially when the snow cover on the sunny slope melts completely.
