Authors: Aatish Anshuman, Mukesh Kumar – University of Alabama
Title: Estimation of episodic recharge in snow-dominated regions
Abstract: Groundwater recharge plays a significant role in the hydrological cycle by directly influencing the groundwater table and baseflow. In snow-dominated regions, a major fraction of annual recharge is contributed by the melting of accumulated snow. Some recharge during the snow season is also contributed by rain-on-snow events and rain on snow-free ground. The goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of snowmelt and rain events on groundwater recharge in snow dominated settings. To this end, we use the daily groundwater table, precipitation and snow water equivalent (SWE) variations to individually evaluate the recharge contribution attributable to rainfall and snowmelt events. The groundwater table time series is utilized to first obtain a Master Recession Curve (MRC), which is then used to compute the recharge per specific yield for the identified recharge episodes using the Episodic Master Recession (EMR) method. Our results will help constrain and improve existing hydrologic models of groundwater recharge by yielding unique benchmark data for model evaluation and validation.