Sixteen established scientists from the fields of hydrology, glaciology and climatology have gathered to write this book on snow-climate interactions. We all know that this interaction is complex (snowdrift!) and that there are many ways and tools to study it, from detailed field observations on snow plots not larger than half a football field to global climate models with grid sizes that are easily as large as a million football fields. This wide range of scales and possible scopes has not deterred the authors and their efforts have resulted in the very readable Snow and Climate.
The book begins with a short introduction on snow formation and how snow, once deposited at the surface of the Earth, interacts with climate. Chapter 2 delves deeper into the physical processes governing ice crystal formation, snowpack and snow grain characteristics, snow metamorphism and grain classification, followed by heat, water, air and radiative transfer in snow. Chapter 3 deals with the mass and energy exchange between snow pack and atmosphere. Initially, the level of detail is greater here than in Chapter 2, but the level of mathematics always remains moderate and accessible. I particularly liked the sections describing multiple-month example time series of energy and mass balances of various types of snow surfaces. It is in these sections that the material really comes alive.
Chapter 4 updates us on the art of snow cover modelling. A strikingly long list of existing snow models and GCM snow routines is presented. Apart from being useful in itself, the length of this list clearly stresses the need for the continuation of snow model inter-comparison projects such as SNOWMIP. One such model is used by the authors to illustrate the sensitivity of an alpine snow cover to changes in snow physical parameterizations (albedo, surface roughness). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the sensitivities turn out to be quite large and we must conclude that, in spite of their realistic looking output, snow models can still be improved. Of course, this would require new and original validation experiments, especially from the polar regions where in situ data are sparse. Finally, Chapter 5 describes available snow cover data, measurement devices, snow stratigraphic studies and remote sensing applications. Remote sensing techniques are justifiably treated more extensively, as satellites ensure a global coverage and are our main tool in detecting changes in the snow cover.
At just over 200 pages the authors have deliberately chosen not to exhaustively discuss all aspects of the snow cover in numerous geographical areas. For example, the reader will look in vain for ‘Greenland’ in the index, and Antarctica is only mentioned on a single page. An exhaustive treatment would have been impossible in a single volume anyway, as each of the chapter subjects could easily fill a bookshelf by itself. Rather, the authors have chosen to provide us with the latest development in snow research, an appealing selection of applications and examples, and an up-to-date list of references and URLs where the reader can start his/her own literature search if required.
In my view, the contents of this book are a very good overview of what every serious climate scientist, both modeller or experimentalist, should know about snow and its interaction with the atmosphere. In combination with its fine layout, this makes it worth the rather steep 100 euro (£65) investment.
