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High-Resolution Observations of Transport and Exchange Processes in Mountainous Terrain. ATMOSPHERE 2018. [DOI: 10.3390/atmos9120457] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Mountainous areas require appropriate measurement strategies to cover the full spectrum of details concerning the energy exchange at the Earth’s surface and to capture the spatiotemporal distribution of atmospheric dynamic and thermodynamic fields over them. This includes the range from turbulence to mesoscale processes and its interaction. The surface energy balance needs appropriate measurement strategies as well. In this paper, we present an overview of important experiments performed over mountainous terrain and summarize the available techniques for flow and energy measurements in complex terrain. The description includes ground-based and airborne in situ observations as well as ground-based and airborne remote sensing (passive and active) observations. Emphasis is placed on systems which retrieve spatiotemporal information on mesoscale and smaller scales, fitting mountainous terrain research needs. Finally, we conclude with a short list summarizing challenges and gaps one faces when dealing with measurements over complex terrain.
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Abstract
Snowfall over mountainous areas not only has important implications on the water cycle and the Earth’s radiation balance, but also causes potentially hazardous weather. However, snowfall detection remains one of the most difficult problems in modern hydrometeorology. We present a method for detecting snowfall events from optical satellite data for seasonal snow in mountainous areas. The proposed methodology is based on identifying expanded snow cover or suddenly declined snow grain size using time series images, from which it is possible to detect the location and time of snowfall events. The methodology was tested with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) daily radiance data for an entire hydrologic year from July 2014 to June 2015 in the mountainous area of the Manas River Basin, Northwest China. The study evaluated the recordings of precipitation events at eighteen meteorological stations in the study area prove the effectiveness of the proposed method, showing that there was more liquid precipitation in the second and third quarter, and more solid precipitation in the first and fourth quarter.
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