Data for Dust deposited on snow cover in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, 2011-2016: Compositional variability bearing on snow-melt effects

Light-absorbing particles in atmospheric dust deposited on snow cover (dust-on-snow, DOS) diminish albedo and accelerate the timing and rate of snow melt. Identification of these particles and their effects are relevant to snow-radiation modeling and water-resource management. Laboratory-measured reflectance of DOS samples from the San Juan Mountains (USA) were compared with DOS mass loading, particle sizes, iron mineralogy, carbonaceous matter type and content, and chemical compositions. Samples were collected each spring for water years 2011-2016, when individual dust layers had merged into one (all layers merged) at the snow surface. Average reflectance values of the six samples were 0.2153 (sd, 0.0331) across...

Categories: Data; Tags: Black Carbon, Climatology, Colorado River Basin, Dust, Dust-on-Snow, All tags... Geochemistry, Geomorphology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Land Use Change, Light absorbing particles, San Juan Mountains, Colorado, Silverton Colorado, Swamp Angle Study Plot, Telluride, Colorado, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), ferric oxide minerals, snow-radiation modeling, water resource management, Fewer tags