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Dust transported from rangelands of the Southwestern United States (US) to mountain snowpack in the Upper Colorado River Basin during spring (March‐May) forces earlier and faster snowmelt, which creates problems for water resources and agriculture. To better understand the drivers of dust events, we investigated large‐scale meteorology responsible for organizing two Southwest US dust events from two different dominant geographic locations: (a) the Colorado Plateau and (b) the northern Chihuahuan Desert. High‐resolution Weather Research and Forecasting coupled with Chemistry model (WRF‐Chem) simulations with the Air Force Weather Agency dust emission scheme incorporating a MODIS albedo‐based drag‐partition was used to explore land surface‐atmosphere interactions driving two dust events. We identified commonalities in their meteorological setups. The meteorological analyses revealed that Polar and Sub‐tropical jet stream interaction was a common upper‐level meteorological feature before each of the two dust events. When the two jet streams merged, a strong northeast‐directed pressure gradient upstream and over the source areas resulted in strong near‐surface winds, which lifted available dust into the atmosphere. Concurrently, a strong mid‐tropospheric flow developed over the dust source areas, which transported dust to the San Juan Mountains and southern Colorado snowpack. The WRF‐Chem simulations reproduced both dust events, indicating that the simulations represented the dust sources that contributed to dust‐on‐snow events reasonably well. The representativeness of the simulated dust emission and transport in different geographic and meteorological conditions with our use of albedo‐based drag partition provides a basis for additional dust‐on‐snow simulations to assess the hydrologic impact in the Southwest US.

 

Daily Average of 30-minute Soil Volumetric Water Content data at 10 cm at CSIS Block-1. Collection of soil water content data at Jornada LTER Cross-scale Interactions Study (CSIS) blocks, New Mexico, supports the environmental monitoring objectives of the Jornada LTER monitoring program that look at plant-soil water dynamics. Soil volumetric water content is measured every 30 minutes at 10 cm depth at 3 locations at each of the 4 plots per block and averaged for the daily value. The locations in each plot are under bare soil, under perennial grass, and under shrub. Volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, soil temperature, and bulk dielectric permittivity are recorded at an automated meteorological station installed at Jornada LTER CSIS Block-1 site. This is an ONGOING dataset. 

30-minute Soil Moisture data at 10 cm at CSIS Block-15. Collection of soil volumetric water content data at Jornada LTER Cross-scale Interactions Study (CSIS) blocks, New Mexico, supports the environmental monitoring objectives of the Jornada LTER monitoring program that look at plant-soil water dynamics. Soil volumetric water content is measured at 10 cm depth at 3 locations at each of the 4 plots per block. The locations in each plot are under bare soil, under perennial grass, and under shrub. Volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, soil temperature, and bulk dielectric permittivity are recorded every 30 minutes at an automated meteorological station installed at Jornada LTER CSIS Block-15 site. This is an ONGOING dataset. 

30-minute Soil Moisture data at 10 cm at CSIS Block-14. Collection of soil volumetric water content data at Jornada LTER Cross-scale Interactions Study (CSIS) blocks, New Mexico, supports the environmental monitoring objectives of the Jornada LTER monitoring program that look at plant-soil water dynamics. Soil volumetric water content is measured at 10 cm depth at 3 locations at each of the 4 plots per block. The locations in each plot are under bare soil, under perennial grass, and under shrub. Volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, soil temperature, and bulk dielectric permittivity are recorded every 30 minutes at an automated meteorological station installed at Jornada LTER CSIS Block-14 site. This is an ONGOING dataset. 

30-minute Soil Moisture data at 10 cm at CSIS Block-13. Collection of soil volumetric water content data at Jornada LTER Cross-scale Interactions Study (CSIS) blocks, New Mexico, supports the environmental monitoring objectives of the Jornada LTER monitoring program that look at plant-soil water dynamics. Soil volumetric water content is measured at 10 cm depth at 3 locations at each of the 4 plots per block. The locations in each plot are under bare soil, under perennial grass, and under shrub. Volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, soil temperature, and bulk dielectric permittivity are recorded every 30 minutes at an automated meteorological station installed at Jornada LTER CSIS Block-13 site. This is an ONGOING dataset. 

30-minute Soil Moisture data at 10 cm at CSIS Block-12. Collection of soil volumetric water content data at Jornada LTER Cross-scale Interactions Study (CSIS) blocks, New Mexico, supports the environmental monitoring objectives of the Jornada LTER monitoring program that look at plant-soil water dynamics. Soil volumetric water content is measured at 10 cm depth at 3 locations at each of the 4 plots per block. The locations in each plot are under bare soil, under perennial grass, and under shrub. Volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, soil temperature, and bulk dielectric permittivity are recorded every 30 minutes at an automated meteorological station installed at Jornada LTER CSIS Block-12 site. This is an ONGOING dataset. 

30-minute Soil Moisture data at 10 cm at CSIS Block-11. Collection of soil volumetric water content data at Jornada LTER Cross-scale Interactions Study (CSIS) blocks, New Mexico, supports the environmental monitoring objectives of the Jornada LTER monitoring program that look at plant-soil water dynamics. Soil volumetric water content is measured at 10 cm depth at 3 locations at each of the 4 plots per block. The locations in each plot are under bare soil, under perennial grass, and under shrub. Volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, soil temperature, and bulk dielectric permittivity are recorded every 30 minutes at an automated meteorological station installed at Jornada LTER CSIS Block-11 site. This is an ONGOING dataset. 

30-minute Soil Moisture data at 10 cm at CSIS Block-9. Collection of soil volumetric water content data at Jornada LTER Cross-scale Interactions Study (CSIS) blocks, New Mexico, supports the environmental monitoring objectives of the Jornada LTER monitoring program that look at plant-soil water dynamics. Soil volumetric water content is measured at 10 cm depth at 3 locations at each of the 4 plots per block. The locations in each plot are under bare soil, under perennial grass, and under shrub. Volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, soil temperature, and bulk dielectric permittivity are recorded every 30 minutes at an automated meteorological station installed at Jornada LTER CSIS Block-9 site. This is an ONGOING dataset. 

30-minute Soil Moisture data at 10 cm at CSIS Block-10. Collection of soil volumetric water content data at Jornada LTER Cross-scale Interactions Study (CSIS) blocks, New Mexico, supports the environmental monitoring objectives of the Jornada LTER monitoring program that look at plant-soil water dynamics. Soil volumetric water content is measured at 10 cm depth at 3 locations at each of the 4 plots per block. The locations in each plot are under bare soil, under perennial grass, and under shrub. Volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, soil temperature, and bulk dielectric permittivity are recorded every 30 minutes at an automated meteorological station installed at Jornada LTER CSIS Block-10 site. This is an ONGOING dataset. 

30-minute Soil Moisture data at 10 cm at CSIS Block-8. Collection of soil volumetric water content data at Jornada LTER Cross-scale Interactions Study (CSIS) blocks, New Mexico, supports the environmental monitoring objectives of the Jornada LTER monitoring program that look at plant-soil water dynamics. Soil volumetric water content is measured at 10 cm depth at 3 locations at each of the 4 plots per block. The locations in each plot are under bare soil, under perennial grass, and under shrub. Volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, soil temperature, and bulk dielectric permittivity are recorded every 30 minutes at an automated meteorological station installed at Jornada LTER CSIS Block-8 site. This is an ONGOING dataset.