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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-327</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Greek mountain snow cover halved in past four decades due to regional warming</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Alexopoulos</surname>
<given-names>Konstantis</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Willis</surname>
<given-names>Ian C.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0750-7088</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pritchard</surname>
<given-names>Hamish D.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2936-1734</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kyros</surname>
<given-names>Giorgos</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6670-4778</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kotroni</surname>
<given-names>Vassiliki</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Lagouvardos</surname>
<given-names>Konstantinos</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1ER, United Kingdom</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, Athens, 15236, Greece</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Hellenic Mountain Observatory, Piraeus, 18531, Greece</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, United Kingdom</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>28</day>
<month>01</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>40</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Konstantis Alexopoulos et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-327/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-327/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-327/egusphere-2026-327.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-327/egusphere-2026-327.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Snowpacks in mountain regions with Mediterranean climates are exceptionally sensitive to climate warming. However, these marginal snowpacks are sparsely monitored, limiting our understanding of recent snow losses and constraining our ability to anticipate and manage future changes in mountain water supply. Here we present snowMapper v1.0, a modular, physics-informed, machine-learning-based model for reconstructing daily snow cover at high spatial resolution using satellite imagery and gridded climate products. snowMapper is fully configurable and features dedicated modules for masking, preprocessing, snow binarization, snow reconstruction, spatiotemporal aggregation, and validation. It performs with exceptionally high skill. Using snowMapper, we generate a monthly snow-cover climatology for ten of Greece&amp;rsquo;s highest mountain massifs for the period 1984&amp;ndash;2025. Our results reveal a rapid and widespread decline in snow cover area (SCA), amounting to a ~58 % reduction relative to the 1984&amp;ndash;2025 mean. We identify sustained warming throughout the snow season as the primary driver of this decline. Precipitation changes correlate with SCA only in early and mid-winter, underscoring the dual role of air temperature in controlling both accumulation (via snowfall fraction) and ablation processes. The North Atlantic Oscillation exerts only a modest influence on mid-winter SCA, and primarily when acting in conjunction with the Arctic Oscillation, representing a stark contrast to patterns observed in western Mediterranean mountain ranges. Finally, the absence of a strong relationship between SCA and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation reinforces the conclusion that the observed trends lie outside the bounds of natural climate variability.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="40"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Royal Geographical Society</funding-source>
<award-id>PRA 26.24</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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