Climate Data Records of the Northern Hemisphere snow mass produced by FMI-Space used to assess the human impact to snow loss

The increasing fleet of Earth observing satellites has been a game changer in the monitoring of cryosphere. New analysis shows that human-induced emissions have caused decreases to snow mass in latitudes south of the 60 degrees, whereas the impact has been the opposite to northern latitudes. Consequently, results indicate that drastic decreases in river discharges are probable during the next decades, especially in heavily populated areas of Europe and North America. The satellite data records produced by FMI-Space describing the daily evolution of Northern Hemisphere snow water equivalent have played an important role in this work. These aspects are discussed in articles published in Nature vol. 625 on 11 January 2024 (Pulliainen, 2024; Gottlieb & Mankin, 2024).

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Jouni Pulliainen, Space and Earth Observation Centre, Finnish Meteorological Institute, jouni.pulliainen@fmi.fi

See the publications:

Nature vol. 625 on 11 January 2024: Snow loss pinned to human-induced emissions.

Pulliainen, J. Snow loss pinned to human-induced emissions. News and Views, Nature 625, 246-247 (2024) doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03993-5

Nature vol. 625 on 11 January 2024: Evidence of human influence on Northern Hemisphere snow loss.

Gottlieb, A.R., Mankin, J.S. Evidence of human influence on Northern Hemisphere snow loss. Nature 625, 293–300 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06794-y

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