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Modulation of snow on the daily evolution of surface heating over the Tibetan Plateau during winter: Observational analyses
  • Yufei Xin,
  • ge Liu,
  • Yueli Chen
Yufei Xin
Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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ge Liu
Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences
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Yueli Chen
Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences
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Abstract

Studying the daily evolution of turbulent fluxes modulated by snowfall over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is of importance to understand the features of the change in the TP heat source/sink. Based on observations from 4 sites of the Third TP Atmospheric Scientific Experiment, the process of surface energy balance impacted by snow is investigated. The results show that the surface albedo increases on the first day of snow and then slowly decreases. Correspondingly, the sensible heat (H) flux sharply decreases after snow and then recovers to the original level during the following approximately 10 days. The latent heat (LE) flux becomes more active and stronger after snowfall and persists for a longer period than H, since the soil moisture may still contribute to a high LE after snowmelt. As the synergistic result of H and LE modulated by snow, the surface turbulent heating (i.e., the sum H and LE) of the TP decreases at the early period of snow events and then even enhances to a higher level after the snowmelt than before snow. Comparison analyses reveal that the impact of snow on the H and LE over the TP is much stronger than over similar latitude low-altitude regions in North America and Europe, which may be partly attributed to the larger and more drastic change of the surface net solar radiation associated with snow processes in the TP. This study may help further understand the detailed physical processes of modulation of snow events on Asian weather processes during winter.