Scholarly Dust-on-Snow Related Publications (assisted by CSAS/CODOS):

Doskocil, L.G.; Fassnacht, S.R.; Barnard, D.M.; Pfohl, A.K.D.; Derry, J.E.; Sanford, W.E. Twin-Peaks Streamflow Timing: Can We Use Forest and Alpine Snow Melt-Out Response to Estimate? Water 2025, 17, 2017. https://doi.org/10.3390/w17132017

Reynolds, R. L., Goldstein, H. L., Kokaly, R., Lowers, H., Breit, G. N., Moskowitz, B. M., et al. (2025). Light absorbing particles deposited to snow cover across the Upper Colorado River basin, Colorado, 2013–2016: Interannual variations from multiple natural and anthropogenic sources. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 130, e2024JD041676. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JD041676

Reynolds, R. L., Molden, N., Kokaly, R. F., Lowers, H., Breit, G. N., Goldstein, H. L., Williams, E. K., Lawrence, C. R., & Derry, J. (2024). Microplastic and Associated Black Particles from Road-tire Wear: Implications for Radiative Effects across the Cryosphere and in the Atmosphere. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129, e2024JD041116, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JD041116

Courville ZR, Lieblappen RM, Thurston AK, Barbato RA, Fegyveresi JM, Farnsworth LB, Derry J, Jones RM, Doherty SJ and Rosten SA (2020) Microorganisms Associated With Dust on Alpine Snow. Front. Earth Sci. 8:122.doi: 10.3389/feart.2020.00122

Reynolds, R. L., Goldstein, H. L., Moskowitz, B. M., Kokaly, R. F., Munson, S. M., Solheid, P., et al. (2020). Dust deposited on snow cover in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, 2011–2016: Compositional variability bearing on snow‐melt effects. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125, e2019JD032210. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD032210

Follum ML, Niemann JD, Fassnacht SR. A comparison of snowmelt-derived streamflow from temperature-index and modified-temperature-index snow models. Hydrological Processes. 2019;1–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13545

Arcusa H. S., McKay., N. P., Routson, C. C., Munoz, S. E., (2019). Dust-drought interactions over the last 15,000 years: A network of lake sediment records from the San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Johnson, M. T., Ramage, J., Troy, T. J., & Brodzik, M. J. (2020). Snowmelt Detection with Calibrated, Enhanced‐Resolution Brightness Temperatures (CETB) in Colorado Watersheds. Water Resources Research, 56, e2018WR024542. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024542

Routson, C. C., Arcusa, S. H., McKay,N. P., & Overpeck, J. T. (2019). A 4,500‐year‐long record of southern Rocky Mountain dust deposition. Geophysical Research Letters, 46. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083255

McGrath, D., Webb, R., Shean, D., Bonnell, R., Marshall, H.‐P., Painter, T. H., et al. (2019). Spatially extensive ground‐penetrating radar snow depth observations during NASA's 2017 SnowEx campaign: Comparison with In situ, airborne, and satellite observations. Water Resources Research, 55, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR024907.

Arduini, G., Balsamo, G., Dutra, E., Day, J. J., Sandu, I., Boussetta, S., & Haiden, T. (2019). Impact of a multi-layer snow scheme on near-surface weather forecasts. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 11, 4687-4710. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001725

Brown, J. K., Fassnacht R. F., (2019). Snow Depth Measurement via Time Lapse Photography and Automated Image Recognition. Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University. Colorado Water Institute Completion Report No. 233.

Painter, T. H,S. M. Skiles, J. S. Deems, W. T. Brandt, and J. Dozier (2017), Variation in rising limb of Colorado River snowmelt runoff hydrograph controlled by dust radiative forcing in snow, Geophysical Research Letters, 44. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075826.

Zhuojun Zhang, Harland L. Goldstein, Richard L. Reynolds, Yongfeng Hu, Xiaoming Wang, and Mengqiang Zhu (2018), Phosphorus Speciation and Solubility in Aeolian Dust Deposited in the Interior American West, Environ. Sci. Technol., 2018, 52 (5), pp 2658–2667.  doi: 10.1021/acs.est.7b04729

ChenglaiWu, Xiaohong Liu, Zhaohui Lin, Stefan R. Rahimi-Esfarjani, and Zheng Lu (2018), Impacts of absorbing aerosol deposition on snowpack and
hydrologic cycle in the Rocky Mountain region based on variable-resolution CESM (VR-CESM) simulations
, Atmospheric Chemisrty and Physics, 18, 511–533, 2018.  https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-511-2018

Skiles, S.M. and Painter, T. (2017) ‘Daily evolution in dust and black carbon content, snow grain size, and snow albedo during snowmelt, Rocky Mountains, Colorado’, Journal of Glaciology, 63(237), pp. 118–132. doi: 10.1017/jog.2016.125.

Skiles, S.M., Painter, T. and Okin, G.S. (2017) ‘A method to retrieve the spectral complex refractive index and single scattering optical properties of dust deposited in mountain snow’, Journal of Glaciology, 63(237), pp. 133–147. doi: 10.1017/jog.2016.126.

Guy, Z.M., Deems, J. (2016), Unusual Dry Slab Avalanche Releases Involving Dust-on-Snow Layers in Colorado, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop, Breckenridge, Colorado.

Axson, J. L., H. Shen, A. L. Bondy, C. C. Landry, J. Welz, J. M. Creamean, A. P. Ault (2016), Transported Mineral Dust Deposition Case Study at a Hydrologically Sensitive Mountain Site: Size and Composition Shifts in Ambient Aerosol and SnowpackAerosol and Air Quality Res., 16: 555-567, doi:10.4209/aaqr.2015.05.0346

Oaida, C. M., Y. Xue, M. G. Flanner, S. M. Skiles, F. De Sales, and T. H. Painter (2015), Improving snow albedo processes in WRF/SSiB regional climate model to assess impact of dust and black carbon in snow on surface energy balance and hydrology over western U.S., J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 120, 3228–3248, doi:10.1002/2014JD022444

Landry, C. C., K. A. Buck, M. S. Raleigh, and M. P. Clark (2014), Mountain system monitoring at Senator Beck Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado: A new integrative data source to develop and evaluate models of snow and hydrologic processes, Water Resour. Res., 50, doi:10.1002/2013WR013711.

Bryant, A. B., T. H. Painter, J. S. Deems, and S. M. Bender (2013), Impact of dust radiative forcing in snow on accuracy of operational runoff prediction in the Upper Colorado River BasinGeophys. Res. Lett.40, doi: 10.1002/grl.50773, 2013.

J. Brahney, A.P. Ballantyne, C. Sievers, J.C. Neff. Increasing Ca2+ deposition in the western US: the role of mineral aerosols.  Aeolian Research (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aeolia.2013.04.003

Deems, J. S., T.H. Painter, J.J. Barsugli, J. Belnap, and B. Udall (2013), Combined impacts of current and future dust deposition and regional warming on Colorado River Basin snow dynamics and hydrology, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 4401-4413, doi:10.5194/hess-17-4401-2013.

Painter, T. H., A. C. Bryant, and S. M. Skiles (2012), Radiative forcing by light absorbing impurities in snow from MODIS surface reflectance dataGeophys. Res. Lett., 39, L17502, doi:10.1029/2012GL052457.

Skiles, S. M., T. H. Painter, J. S. Deems, A. C. Bryant, and C. Landry (2012), Dust radiative forcing in snow of the Upper Colorado River Basin: Part II. Interannual variability in radiative forcing and snowmelt ratesWater Resour. Res., doi:10.1029/2012WR011986.

Painter, T. H., S. M. Skiles, J. S. Deems, A. C. Bryant, and C. Landry (2012), Dust radiative forcing in snow of the Upper Colorado River Basin: Part I. A 6 year record of energy balance, radiation, and dust concentrationsWater Resour. Res., doi:10.1029/2012WR011985.

Painter, T. H., J. Deems, J. Belnap, A. Hamlet, C. C. Landry, and B. Udall (2010), Response of Colorado River runoff to dust radiative forcing in snowProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published ahead of print September 20, 2010,doi:10.1073/pnas.0913139107.

Lawrence, C. R., T. H. Painter, C. C. Landry, and J. C. Neff (2010), Contemporary geochemical composition and flux of aeolian dust to the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, United StatesJournal of Geophysical Research, 115, G03007, doi:10.1029/2009JG001077.

Steltzer, H., C. Landry, T. H. Painter, J. Anderson, and E. Ayres. 2009.Biological consequences of earlier snowmelt from desert dust deposition in alpine landscapes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106:  11629-11634, doi_10.1073_pnas.0900758106.

Neff, J.C., A.P. Ballantyne, G.L. Farmer, N.M. Mahowald, J.L. Conroy, C.C. Landry, J.T. Overpeck, T.H. Painter, C.R. Lawrence and R.L. Reynolds. 2008.  Increasing eolian dust deposition in the western United States linked to human activity, Nature Geoscience, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 189-195, March 2008, doi: 10.1038/ngeo136

Painter, T. H.,  A. P. Barrett, C. C. Landry, J. C. Neff, M. P. Cassidy, C. R. Lawrence, K. P. Thatcher, L. Farmer. (2007) Impact of disturbed desert soils on duration of mountain snow coverGeophysical Research Letters. V34, 12, L12502, 10.1029/2007GL030208.

Student Theses:

  • Kevin S. J. Brown, Snow Depth Measurement Via Automated Image Recognition. Watershed Science, Colorado State University (MA 2019)

  • Caroline Duncan, Forecasting Short-Term Changes in Snowmelt due to Dust Impacts on Snow Albedo, Watershed Science, Colorado State University (MA, TBD).

  • McKenzie Skiles, Dust and Black Carbon Radiative Forcing Controls on Snowmelt in the Colorado River Basin, Department of Geography, University of California-Los Angeles, (PhD 2014). 

  • Annie Bryant Burgess, Hydrologic implications of Dust on Snow in the Upper Colorado River Basin, Department of Geography, University of Utah, (PhD 2013).

  • Corey P. Lawrence. Aeolian deposition in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, USA: The biogeochemical role of dust in soil development and weathering. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder (PhD, May 2009).

  • S. McKenzie Skiles, MA, Interannual Variability in Radiative Forcing by Desert Dust in Snowcover in the Colorado River Basin, Dept of Geography, University of Utah, projected graduation June 2010.

  • Kathleen McBride. A synoptic climatology of desert dust deposition to the snowpack in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, U.S.A., Department of Geography, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff (MA, December, 2007).

  • Shane Stradling, An investigation of how dust deposition affects snowpack and snow albedo, Swamp Angel Site, San Juan County, CO, Department of Geosciences, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado (BS, May 2007).