Extracting Signals of Snowmelt from the Surface Energy Budget at a Rocky Mountain Eddy Covariance Site

Extracting Signals of Snowmelt from the Surface Energy Budget at a Rocky Mountain Eddy Covariance Site | Authorea try { document.documentElement.classList.add('js'); } catch (e) { } var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'G-8VDV14Y67G']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Skip to main content Preprints Collections Wiley Open Research IET Open Research Ecological Society of Japan All Collections About About Authorea FAQs Contact Us Quick Search anywhere Search for preprint articles, keywords, etc. Search Search ADVANCED SEARCH SCROLL This is a preprint and has not been peer reviewed. Data may be preliminary. 24 October 2025 V1 Latest version Share on Extracting Signals of Snowmelt from the Surface Energy Budget at a Rocky Mountain Eddy Covariance Site Authors : Alexander Sharp Fox 0009-0009-9775-4784 [email protected] , John M Frank , William J. Massman 0000-0002-5628-6437 , and Brent E. Ewers 0000-0001-6647-7475 Authors Info & Affiliations https://doi.org/10.22541/au.176132967.70658738/v1 140 views 110 downloads Contents Abstract Supplementary Material Information & Authors Metrics & Citations View Options References Figures Tables Media Share Abstract Snowmelt is a dominant hydrologic process in mountainous watersheds and western river systems, yet automatic logging of snowpack properties such as depth, density, and internal energy fluxes, especially during melt, is not done at many Rocky Mountain surface flux sites. In this study, we show that springtime variations in the surface energy budget imbalance can be used to estimate snowpack energy fluxes. Using observations from the US-GLE AmeriFlux site, we demonstrate a data-driven method to extract springtime energy budget anomalies and show that this anomaly is explained by the latent heat flux of melting snow. Additionally, we demonstrate that our model can explain this latent heat flux while preserving the statistical structure of the energy imbalance observed during the rest of the year. Our findings suggest that analysis of the surface energy budget, when tightly constrained, can reveal latent hydrologic processes, improving confidence in surface energy budget measurements and offering a low-cost, data-driven method for estimating snowmelt dynamics at existing flux sites without additional instrumentation. Supplementary Material File (1052215_0_merged_1760835750.pdf) Download 5.87 MB Information & Authors Information Version history V1 Version 1 24 October 2025 Copyright This work is licensed under a Non Exclusive No Reuse License. Keywords alpine hydrology eddy covariance energy budgets evapotranspiration seasonal snowpack snow hydrology Authors Affiliations Alexander Sharp Fox 0009-0009-9775-4784 [email protected] University of Wyoming View all articles by this author John M Frank Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service View all articles by this author William J. Massman 0000-0002-5628-6437 USDA View all articles by this author Brent E. Ewers 0000-0001-6647-7475 University of Wyoming View all articles by this author Metrics & Citations Metrics Article Usage 140 views 110 downloads .FvxKWukQNSOunydq8rnd { width: 100px; } Citations Download citation Alexander Sharp Fox, John M Frank, William J. Massman, et al. Extracting Signals of Snowmelt from the Surface Energy Budget at a Rocky Mountain Eddy Covariance Site. Authorea . 24 October 2025. 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