Successful presentation of MSc thesisSnow's Role in Arctic Soil Warming Uncovered

20 August 2024

Photo: Private

Climate change will significantly warm Arctic soils, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and global surface temperatures. Accurate predictions of Arctic soil thaw-freeze dynamics are essential for future emission modeling. However, discrepancies between models and field measurements, particularly due to understudied snow properties during spring melt, limit accuracy. For her thesis she measured the spatial and temporal variability of spring snowpack on a field trip to the Finnish Taiga and explored its impact on soil temperature. Comparing field observations and model outputs indicated that temporal variability, especially melting, had a greater impact on the heat flux through the snow cover than the landscape scale spatial variability. The findings suggest that incorporating dynamic melt-freeze processes could improve land surface models, as current models underestimate snow density and its effects during spring melt.

Marina’s thesis titled “Identifying Key Snowpack Processes for Heat Flux Estimation in Land Surface Models: A Case Study using DynSoM” was supervised by Prof. Dr. Christian Beer (Universität Hamburg) and Dr. Leena Leppänen (University of Lapland).

Marina has already begun her work with an environmental NGO, and she envisions her future focused on promoting environmental sustainability and climate justice.