Snow height monitoring in coastal Greenland – datasets, scales and climatic drivers

In this contribution we compile hitherto little or unused snow height data for Greenland. We present time-series of autonomously measured snow heights at around 10 locations in different parts of Greenland dating back to 1997. This data was largely measured and archived by Asiaq, Greenland Survey, for varying applications. We show the wide variability of snow heights and determine snow water equivalent using a recently developed model approach. The performance of the model to reproduce manually measured snow water equivalent is striking given the simplicity of input (solely snow depth) and the complexity of the different snow climates. We assess the hydrological significance of seasonal snow cover for very varying climatological conditions in Greenland and evaluate that the hysteresis between snow depth and snow water equivalent formation and depletion differs in shape and strength depending on the general climatological conditions.

In a further step we analyze the drivers of the observed variability relating snow height anomalies to climate oscillation indices (such as NAO, GBI). We hypothesize that the impact of climate oscillations on snow height anomalies is spatially variable in coastal Greenland. Furthermore, we assess to which extent the timing of spring onset determines snow depletion rates.

Finally, given the spatial heterogeneity of snow measurements, we assess the capability of a regional climate model to reproduce snow height and snow water equivalent and relate its performance to topography.