Assessment of Radiative Forcing by Light-Absorbing Particles in Snow from In Situ Observations with Radiative Transfer Modeling

Abstract

Abstract It is well established that episodic deposition of dust on mountain snow reduces snow albedo and impacts snow hydrology in the western United States, particularly in the Colorado Rockies, which are headwaters for the Colorado River. Until recently the snow observations needed to physically quantify radiative forcing (RF) by dust on snow were lacking, and analysis of impacts used a semiempirical relationship between snow optical properties and observed surface reflectance. Here, we present a physically based daily time series of RF by dust and black carbon (BC) in snow at Senator Beck Basin Study Area, Colorado. Over the 2013 ablation season (March–May), a snow–aerosol radiative transfer model was forced with near daily measured snow property inputs (density, effective grain size, and dust/BC concentrations) and validated with coincidentally measured spectral albedo. Over the measurement period, instantaneous RF by dust and BC in snow ranged from 0.25 to 525 W m−2, with daily averages ranging from 0 to 347 W m−2. Dust dominated particulate mass, accounting for more than 90% of RF. The semiempirical RF values, which constitute the continuous long-term record, compared well to the physically based RF values; over the full time series, daily reported semiempirical RF values were 8 W m−2 higher on average, with a root-mean-square difference of 16 W m−2.