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DOI	10.5194/tc-10-257-2016
	Topographic and vegetation effects on snow accumulation in the southern Sierra Nevada: A statistical summary from lidar data
	Zheng Z.; Kirchner P.B.; Bales R.C.
发表日期	2016
ISSN	19940416
卷号	10 期号:1
英文摘要	Airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) measurements carried out in the southern Sierra Nevada in 2010 in the snow-free and peak-snow-accumulation periods were analyzed for topographic and vegetation effects on snow accumulation. Point-cloud data were processed from four primarily mixed-conifer forest sites covering the main snow-accumulation zone, with a total surveyed area of over 106 km2. The percentage of pixels with at least one snow-depth measurement was observed to increase from 65-90 to 99 % as the sampling resolution of the lidar point cloud was increased from 1 to 5 m. However, a coarser resolution risks undersampling the under-canopy snow relative to snow in open areas and was estimated to result in at least a 10 cm overestimate of snow depth over the main snow-accumulation region between 2000 and 3000 m, where 28 % of the area had no measurements. Analysis of the 1 m gridded data showed consistent patterns across the four sites, dominated by orographic effects on precipitation. Elevation explained 43 % of snow-depth variability, with slope, aspect and canopy penetration fraction explaining another 14 % over the elevation range of 1500-3300 m. The relative importance of the four variables varied with elevation and canopy cover, but all were statistically significant over the area studied. The difference between mean snow depth in open versus under-canopy areas increased with elevation in the rain-snow transition zone (1500-1800 m) and was about 35 ± 10 cm above 1800 m. Lidar has the potential to transform estimation of snow depth across mountain basins, and including local canopy effects is both feasible and important for accurate assessments. © 2016 Author(s).
学科领域	coniferous forest; forest canopy; lidar; orographic effect; pixel; precipitation assessment; snow accumulation; statistical analysis; topographic effect; transition zone; California; Sierra Nevada [California]; United States; Coniferophyta
语种	英语
scopus关键词	coniferous forest; forest canopy; lidar; orographic effect; pixel; precipitation assessment; snow accumulation; statistical analysis; topographic effect; transition zone; California; Sierra Nevada [California]; United States; Coniferophyta
来源期刊	Cryosphere
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/119712
作者单位	Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States; Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, Pasadena, CA, United States; Southwest Alaska Network, National Park Service, Anchorage, AK, United States; Sierra Nevada Research Institute, UC Merced, Merced, CA, United States
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Zheng Z.,Kirchner P.B.,Bales R.C.. Topographic and vegetation effects on snow accumulation in the southern Sierra Nevada: A statistical summary from lidar data[J],2016,10(1).
APA	Zheng Z.,Kirchner P.B.,&Bales R.C..(2016).Topographic and vegetation effects on snow accumulation in the southern Sierra Nevada: A statistical summary from lidar data.Cryosphere,10(1).
MLA	Zheng Z.,et al."Topographic and vegetation effects on snow accumulation in the southern Sierra Nevada: A statistical summary from lidar data".Cryosphere 10.1(2016).