Publications by Michael Lehning

Retrieval of Surface Solar Radiation through Implicit Albedo Recovery from Temporal Context

Michael Lehning, Devis Tuia, Yael Frischholz

To retrieve Surface Solar Radiation (SSR) from satellite images, a baseline reflectance of the observed ground in clear-sky conditions, also called background reflectance, is necessary to distinguish atmospheric absorption and scattering effects from surfa ...

2025

Towards a physically and microstructure-based equation for the evolution of the specific surface area in snow

Michael Lehning

The specific surface area (SSA) of snow is a critical structural quantity that controls snow properties and constantly evolves over time. An accurate understanding and modeling of the dynamical evolution of the SSA is thus of primary importance for snowpac ...

2025

Banner Cloud Formation at the Matterhorn: Measurements versus Large-Eddy Simulations

Michael Lehning, Wolf Hendrik Huwald, Brandon Jacobus Adrianus Van Schaik

Banner clouds are clouds in the lee of steep mountains or sharp ridges on otherwise cloud-free days. Previous studies identified key mechanisms and preferred flow conditions on the basis of idealized Large-Eddy Simulations, but it remained unclear to what ...

American Meteorological Society2025

The MatterHEX Experiment – Investigating Atmospheric Flow Patterns in Highly Complex Terrain Related to Banner Cloud Formation

Michael Lehning, Wolf Hendrik Huwald, Brandon Jacobus Adrianus Van Schaik

Orographic clouds typically form on the windward side of a topographic barrier when approaching air is cooled as it is lifted, and moisture condenses into cloud droplets. Under special conditions, however, clouds can appear on the leeward side of a mountai ...

American Meteorological Society2025

Governing Processes of Structure-Borne Snowdrifts: A Case Study at Neumayer Station III

Michael Lehning, Océane Hames

The genesis of snowdrifts and its governing processes are not fully understood. In Antarctica, understanding snow movement is crucial for assessing ice sheet mass balance and tackling logistical challenges related to human infrastructure. So far, extensive ...

2025

Parameterizing Snow Sublimation in Conditions of Drifting and Blowing Snow

Michael Lehning, Christophe Moser, Armin Sigmund

Snow transport favors strong sublimation and may therefore have an important effect on the surface mass balance of polar and high‐mountain regions. Recently, small‐scale models such as large‐eddy simulation (LES) with Lagrangian snow particles have improve ...

American Geophysical Union (AGU)2025

Influence of air flow features on alpine wind energy potential

Michael Lehning, Wolf Hendrik Huwald, Jérôme François Sylvain Dujardin, Franziska Gerber, Fanny Kristianti

Wind energy is one of the potential options to fill the gap in renewable energy production in Switzerland during the winter season when the energy demand exceeds local production capacities. With likely further rising energy consumption in the future, the ...

Frontiers Media Sa2024

Impact of intercepted and sub-canopy snow microstructure on snowpack response to rain-on-snow events under a boreal canopy

Michael Lehning, Adrien Michel, Nander Wever, Daniel Nadeau, Benjamin Bouchard

Rain-on-snow events can cause severe flooding in snow-dominated regions. These are expected to become more frequent in the future as climate change shifts the precipitation from snowfall to rainfall. However, little is known about how winter rainfall inter ...

2024

Snowfall deposition in mountainous terrain: a statistical downscaling scheme from high-resolution model data on simulated topographies

Michael Lehning

One of the primary causes of non-uniform snowfall deposition on the ground in mountainous regions is the preferential deposition of snow, which results from the interaction of near-surface winds with topography and snow particles. However, producing high-r ...

Frontiers Media Sa2024

Intermediate complexity atmospheric modeling in complex terrain: is it right?

Michael Lehning, Dylan Stewart Reynolds, Michael Haugeneder

Dynamic downscaling of atmospheric forcing data to the hectometer resolution has shown increases in accuracy for landsurface models, but at great computational cost. Here we present a validation of a novel intermediate complexity atmospheric model, HICAR, ...

Frontiers Media Sa2024