Global Annual Snow Accumulation by Months
Abstract
The compilation of observed mean monthly snow accumulations for the globe was taken from a variety of climatological sources and formats. They were reformatted to fit the global 4 latitude by 5 longitude grid of the RAND coupled two-level oceanic and two-level atmospheric general circulation model (GCM). The results are presented in the form of machine-analyzed isopleths on global maps, global grid-point tabulations, and global means. These products were used at RAND to initialize GCM calculations, to facilitate comparisons with global integrations from the GCM, and as the global climatological summary. The snow- accumulation data given here were derived from observed data from various sources, presented in a variety of formats. Most of the monthly measurements were from scheduled snow-depth observations made in the Northern Hemisphere that were published before 1976. These data were gathered and developed into monthly climatologies, expressing conditions representative of the last day of each month, by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). To supplement the CRREL summaries, a pseudoclimatology of monthly snow accumulations was developed at RAND for the 4 latitude by 5 longitude grid points through the data-sparse areas of China, Greenland, the Arctic basin, and the Antarctic. (sdw)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA216896
Entities
People
- Charles Schutz
- L. D. Bregman
Organizations
- RAND Corporation