Marshall et al. (2025) High-resolution mountain topography can inform global snow vulnerability estimates

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Environmental Research Letters
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-16
• Authors: Adrienne Marshall, John T. Abatzoglou, Arielle Koshkin, Alan M. Rhoades
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ae2d73

Research Groups

Not specified in the provided abstract.

Short Summary

This study leverages fine-scale digital elevation models (DEMs) and historical freezing level height data to estimate historical and projected changes in global mountain snow-receiving area (SRA). It finds significant SRA declines from 1982–2020 and projects substantial, often nonlinear, further losses under future warming scenarios, highlighting the importance of fine-resolution data for accurate assessments.

Objective

• To leverage digital elevation models (DEMs) at a 7.5 arc second (approximately 250 meter) resolution, combined with historical freezing level height estimates from ERA-5, to derive estimates of changes in the snow-receiving area (SRA) and its variability across global mountain ranges.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global mountain ranges; 7.5 arc second (approximately 250 meter) resolution for DEMs.
• Temporal Scale: Historical period (1982–2020); Projected warming scenarios (+1.5 °C, +2 °C, and +4 °C relative to pre-industrial control).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: An analytical approach combining fine-scale DEMs with freezing level height estimates. No specific process-based snow models (e.g., ISBA, mHM) were explicitly mentioned as being used for snow dynamics.
• Data sources: Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) at 7.5 arc second resolution; ERA-5 reanalysis for historical freezing level height estimates.

Main Results

• From 1982–2020, an estimated 29% (1.9 million square kilometers) of the global mountain area experienced declines in snow-receiving area (SRA).
• Over the same historical period, 66% of mountainous areas showed no change in SRA.
• Under a +1.5 °C warming scenario relative to pre-industrial levels, global mountain SRA is projected to decline by 9.5% (1.0 million square kilometers) compared to recent conditions.
• This projected SRA loss would approximately double with +2 °C of warming.
• In a +4 °C warming scenario, an additional 34% (3.6 million square kilometers) of SRA would be lost beyond the +2 °C case.
• SRA losses across individual mountain ranges can occur nonlinearly with warming, indicating that locations with minor historical losses may face substantially larger losses in warmer climates.
• Analysis using coarser-resolution DEMs can lead to underestimation or overestimation of SRA and its rate of loss, with the most significant discrepancies observed in relatively warm, low-elevation mountain ranges.

Contributions

• Provides estimates of projected SRA loss at policy-relevant warming levels.
• Informs the necessary resolutions for accurate process-based snow modeling.
• Identifies global snow vulnerability hotspots.
• Introduces a new integrated approach for global-scale snow vulnerability assessment that highlights potential nonlinearities between recent trends and various future warming scenarios.

Funding

Not specified in the provided abstract.

Citation

@article{Marshall2025Highresolution,
  author = {Marshall, Adrienne and Abatzoglou, John T. and Koshkin, Arielle and Rhoades, Alan M.},
  title = {High-resolution mountain topography can inform global snow vulnerability estimates},
  journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/ae2d73},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae2d73}
}