Bias adjustment and downscaling of snow cover  fraction projections from regional climate models  using remote sensing for the European Alps

Matiu, Michael; Hanzer, Florian

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3037-2022

Articles | Volume 26, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3037-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3037-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 12

Research article

|

21 Jun 2022

Research article |

| 21 Jun 2022

Bias adjustment and downscaling of snow cover fraction projections from regional climate models using remote sensing for the European Alps

Michael Matiu and Florian Hanzer

Download

Final revised paper (published on 21 Jun 2022)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 23 Sep 2021)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on hess-2021-449', Anonymous Referee #1, 05 Nov 2021
This paper used a bias correction and downscaling method to estimate snow cover fraction from regional climate models. The method and results are difficult to follow. Comments and questions are below.

Figure 1, the outline of the small study area is not clear. Please also give the description of the small study area. In Figure c and d, which data source does the snow cover duration come from?

L95-100 belong to “Study Area”, rather than “Data”.

Section 2.1 “Observed snow cover fraction from remote sensing”, in addition to pointing to referenced paper (Matiu et al., 20201), state how you obtained the daily cloud-free snow cover maps?

Change “2.1 Snow cover fraction from regional climate models” to “2.2 Snow cover fraction from regional climate models”.

L155-157, please provide more detailed information for the conversion from snow water equivalent to snow cover fraction. Snow cover fraction is a ratio, how did you use the threshold of 5 mm to get the snow cover fraction.

L162ï¼why use 19 GCM-RCM for RCP8.5 and 3 GCM-RCM for RCP2.6?

L169-170, the full name of DC, QM, QDM have provided in the Introduction section, here just use DC, QM, QDM.

How did you validate the estimated snow cover fraction?
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-449-RC1
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Michael Matiu, 22 Nov 2021
  
  see attached file
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-449-AC1
RC2:
'Comment on hess-2021-449', Anonymous Referee #2, 17 Nov 2021

Please see the attached file for my comments.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-449-RC2
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Michael Matiu, 22 Nov 2021
  
  see attached file
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-449-AC2

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (02 Dec 2021) by Hongkai Gao

AR by Michael Matiu on behalf of the Authors (23 Feb 2022) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (28 Feb 2022) by Hongkai Gao

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (17 Mar 2022)

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (12 Apr 2022)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (12 Apr 2022) by Hongkai Gao

AR by Michael Matiu on behalf of the Authors (21 Apr 2022) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (22 Apr 2022) by Hongkai Gao

AR by Michael Matiu on behalf of the Authors (26 Apr 2022)

Short summary

Regional climate models not only provide projections on temperature and precipitation, but also on snow. Here, we employed statistical post-processing using satellite observations to reduce bias and uncertainty from model projections of future snow-covered area and duration under different greenhouse gas concentration scenarios for the European Alps. Snow cover area/duration decreased overall in the future, three times more strongly with 4–5° global warming as compared to 1.5–2°.