On the influence of erect shrubs on the irradiance profile in snow

Belke-Brea, Maria; Domine, Florent; Picard, Ghislain; Barrere, Mathieu; Arnaud, Laurent

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5851-2021

Articles | Volume 18, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5851-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5851-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 21

Research article

|

03 Nov 2021

Research article |

| 03 Nov 2021

On the influence of erect shrubs on the irradiance profile in snow

Maria Belke-Brea, Florent Domine, Ghislain Picard, Mathieu Barrere, and Laurent Arnaud

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5851-2021-supplement

Data sets

Measured and simulated snow irradiance profiles as well as snow SSA and density data measured at shrub and shrub-free sites in the Tasiapik Valley in Umiujaq, Northern Québec, v. 1.0 (2015–2015) M. Belke-Brea, F. Domine, G. Picard, and L. Arnaud https://doi.org/10.5885/45753CEF2A3EB5488B442E3

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Short summary

Expanding shrubs in the Arctic change snowpacks into a mix of snow, impurities and buried branches. Snow is a translucent medium into which light penetrates and gets partly absorbed by branches or impurities. Measurements of light attenuation in snow in Northern Quebec, Canada, showed (1) black-carbon-dominated light attenuation in snowpacks without shrubs and (2) buried branches influence radiation attenuation in snow locally, leading to melting and pockets of large crystals close to branches.