Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3505
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3505
15 Nov 2024
 | 15 Nov 2024
Status: this preprint is open for discussion.

Trends in the annual snow melt-out day over the French Alps and the Pyrenees from 38 years of high resolution satellite data (1986–2023)

Zacharie Barrou Dumont, Simon Gascoin, Jordi Inglada, Andreas Dietz, Jonas Köhler, Matthieu Lafaysse, Diego Monteiro, Carlo Carmagnola, Arthur Bayle, Jean-Pierre Dedieu, Olivier Hagolle, and Philippe Choler

Abstract. Information on the spatial-temporal variability of the seasonal snow cover duration over long time periods is critical to study the response of mountain ecosystems to climate change. However, this information is often lacking due to the sparse distribution of in situ observations or the lack of adequate remote sensing products. Here, we combined snow cover data from ten different optical platforms including SPOT 1-5, Landsat 5-8 and Sentinel-2A&B to build a time series of the annual snow melt out day (SMOD, i.e. the first day of no snow cover) at 20 m resolution across the French Alps and the Pyrenees (43×103 km2). We evaluated the pixel-wise accuracy of the computed SMOD using in situ snow measurements at 344 stations. We found that the residuals are unbiased (median error of 1 day) despite a dispersion (RMSE of 28 days), which suggests that this dataset can be used to study SMOD trends after spatial aggregation. We found an average reduction of 20.4 days (5.51 days per decade) over the French Alps and of 14.9 days (4.04 day per decade) over the Pyrenees over the period 1986–2023. The SMOD reduction is robust and significant in most part of the French Alps and can reach one month above 3000 m. The trends are less consistent and more spatially variable in the Pyrenees. This dataset is available for future studies of mountain ecosystems changes and is updated every year using Sentinel-2 data.

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Zacharie Barrou Dumont, Simon Gascoin, Jordi Inglada, Andreas Dietz, Jonas Köhler, Matthieu Lafaysse, Diego Monteiro, Carlo Carmagnola, Arthur Bayle, Jean-Pierre Dedieu, Olivier Hagolle, and Philippe Choler

Status: open (until 10 Jan 2025)

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Zacharie Barrou Dumont, Simon Gascoin, Jordi Inglada, Andreas Dietz, Jonas Köhler, Matthieu Lafaysse, Diego Monteiro, Carlo Carmagnola, Arthur Bayle, Jean-Pierre Dedieu, Olivier Hagolle, and Philippe Choler

Data sets

Snow melt out day in the French Alps and Pyrenees from SPOT, Landsat and Sentinel-2 data Zacharie Barrou Dumont and Simon Gascoin https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13991895

Zacharie Barrou Dumont, Simon Gascoin, Jordi Inglada, Andreas Dietz, Jonas Köhler, Matthieu Lafaysse, Diego Monteiro, Carlo Carmagnola, Arthur Bayle, Jean-Pierre Dedieu, Olivier Hagolle, and Philippe Choler

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Short summary
We generated annual maps of snow melt-out day at 20 m resolution over a period of 38 years from ten different satellites. This study fills a knowledge gap on the evolution of mountain snow in Europe by covering a much longer period and by characterizing trends at much higher resolution than previous studies. We found a trend for earlier melt-out with an average reduction of 5.51 days per decade over the French Alps and of 4.04 day per decade over the Pyrenees over the period 1986–2023.