BG Biogeosciences BG Biogeosciences 1726-4189 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/bg-10-7575-2013 Pan-Arctic linkages between snow accumulation and growing-season air temperature, soil moisture and vegetation Luus K. A. 1 2 Gel Y. 3 4 Lin J. C. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2794-184X 1 5 Kelly R. E. J. 2 Duguay C. R. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1044-5850 2 Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada Department of Mathematics and Mechanics, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA 22 11 2013 10 11 7575 7597 Copyright: © 2013 K. A. Luus et al. 2013 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/10/7575/2013/bg-10-7575-2013.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/10/7575/2013/bg-10-7575-2013.pdf

Arctic field studies have indicated that the air temperature, soil moisture and vegetation at a site influence the quantity of snow accumulated, and that snow accumulation can alter growing-season soil moisture and vegetation. Climate change is predicted to bring about warmer air temperatures, greater snow accumulation and northward movements of the shrub and tree lines. Understanding the responses of northern environments to changes in snow and growing-season land surface characteristics requires: (1) insights into the present-day linkages between snow and growing-season land surface characteristics; and (2) the ability to continue to monitor these associations over time across the vast pan-Arctic. The objective of this study was therefore to examine the pan-Arctic (north of 60° N) linkages between two temporally distinct data products created from AMSR-E satellite passive microwave observations: GlobSnow snow water equivalent (SWE), and NTSG growing-season AMSR-E Land Parameters (air temperature, soil moisture and vegetation transmissivity). Due to the complex and interconnected nature of processes determining snow and growing-season land surface characteristics, these associations were analyzed using the modern nonparametric technique of alternating conditional expectations (ACE), as this approach does not impose a predefined analytic form. Findings indicate that regions with lower vegetation transmissivity (more biomass) at the start and end of the growing season tend to accumulate less snow at the start and end of the snow season, possibly due to interception and sublimation. Warmer air temperatures at the start and end of the growing season were associated with diminished snow accumulation at the start and end of the snow season. High latitude sites with warmer mean annual growing-season temperatures tended to accumulate more snow, probably due to the greater availability of water vapor for snow season precipitation at warmer locations. Regions with drier soils preceding snow onset tended to accumulate greater quantities of snow, likely because drier soils freeze faster and more thoroughly than wetter soils. Understanding and continuing to monitor these linkages at the regional scale using the ACE approach can allow insights to be gained into the complex response of Arctic ecosystems to climate-driven shifts in air temperature, vegetation, soil moisture and snow accumulation.

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