About this Research Topic
Snow is a fundamental component of the climate system and the hydrological cycle, interacting spatially and temporally with surface thermal energy, atmospheric dynamics, and soil thermal conditions. It significantly influences land surface hydrology in the cold climate environments by storing water during winter and releasing it gradually as snowmelt into rivers over the spring and early summer. In cold regions on Earth, snow plays a crucial role in sustainable development by contributing to water resources supplying over one billion people. These contributions are particularly vital in drylands supporting irrigated crop production, hydropower generation, and sustaining ecosystems. Hence, this collection will target papers whose focus is improving knowledge about snowpack dynamics and their contribution to sustainable water use, with a focus on cold regions under climate change so that strong mitigation and adaptation strategies can be developed.
This Research Topic aims at bringing together pure theoretical and applied scientific research on snow in response to changes in climate. The Research Topic especially encourages submissions on:
• Snow Resource Changes
• Snow Drought
• Snow Accumulation and Melt Processes
• Snow Cover Area and Duration
• Snowpack Hydrological Processes
• Rain-on-Snow Climatology
• Snow Data Assimilation
• Wintertime Snowmelt Floods
Keywords: winter climate, snowpack, cold regions, snowmelt
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.