A laboratory investigation of the leaching of solute from snowpack by rainfall

Abstract

Abstract Under controlled laboratory conditions, artificial rain leaches solute from snow columns, and gives rise to leachate with a composition similar to snowmelt, in addition to the solute initially present in the artificial rain. the initial concentration of ions in the leachate, normalized to the concentration of ions found in the original snow and corrected for the solute present in the artificial rain, is similar to those reported in other laboratory and field studies of snowmelt composition, but there is some evidence that the concentration of leached ions declines more rapidly than during snowmelt. Similarly, as in snowmelt studies, not all ions are leached with the same efficiency. Bearing in mind the confounding influences of snow crystal morphology and snow column hydrology, it seems likely that rain will leach solute from snowpack during rain‐on‐snow events, in a manner similar to leaching by snowmelt, and that the precise composition of the leachate will depend on the hydrological routing of rain‐meltwater mixtures through the snowpack.