Earth’s Cryosphere, 2021, vol. XXV, No. 3, pp. 37–42

SNOW COVER AND GLACIERS

CONJUGATION OF CHANGES IN AIR TEMPERATURE, SNOW COVER THICKNESS AND SOIL TEMPERATURE OF EAST EUROPEAN PLAIN

L.M. Kitaev

Institute of Geography, RAS, Staromonetny per. 29, Moscow, 119017, Russia; lkitaev@mail.ru

The main goal of the research is to assess the nature of the spatio-temporal changes in the temperature regime of the soil of the East European Plain (Russian part) under the conditions of changes in snow cover and soil temperature in recent decades – at the local and regional levels. The phases of changes in soil temperature, snow thickness, and surface air temperature, typical for the study area, have been identified. Significant long-term tendencies in the progress of in soil temperature are characteristic of low-snow autumn and spring periods, as well as a significant correlation between soil temperature and air temperature during those periods in the absence of statistical relationships during the snow season. A sharp decrease in the seasonal and inter-annual variability of soil temperature in the period with stable snow cover has been revealed – by 3–5 times relative to the variability of the surface air temperature, and by 1.3–2.5 times relative to the variability of soil temperature in the pre-winter and spring periods with a progress of changes. Thus, the appearance of stable snow cover in the winter season determines the progress of soil temperature within a narrow corridor of near-zero values, low or insignificant coefficients of the linear trend, low seasonal and inter-annual variability, the absence of statistical relationships with the course of changes in snow thickness and surface air temperature – both at the local, and at the regional levels of the East European Plain.

Key words: snow thickness, surface air temperature, soil temperature, spatial distribution, multiyear progress