Effect of diminishing snow cover and increasing temperature on terminal lakes in the western United States

Earlier snowmelt in many areas of the western United States in recent decades is associated with changes in air and surface temperatures, snowfall, snow depth and evaporation. Climate change, along with consumptive water use, is contributing to the desiccation of terminal lakes in the western United States. We use MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite data products and Landsat data and imagery to study interannual changes and 20-year trends in snow cover and surface temperature in two snow-dominated basins in the western United States that contain terminal lakes. For the Great Salt Lake (GSL) basin, using the MOD10A1F standard snow-cover product, we find earlier snowmelt by ~9.5 days during the MODIS era along with a decline in snow depth (~34.5 mm), higher air temperatures (0.94°C) and land-surface temperature (LST) (1.90°C) derived from the MYD21A1D standard LST product. And evaporation is increasing according to the Global Land surface Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) dataset. For the Mono Lake basin we also find earlier snowmelt, and higher air and LST, though the changes are not as dramatic as observed in the GSL basin. Because of recent efforts to control stream diversions, there has been an improvement in the health of Mono Lake, allowing the lake level to increase somewhat and salinity to decrease, even through periods of drought and low mountain snow cover. This has not been the case for the GSL which is continuing to decline. Remotely-sensed data and data products provide insights into some of the factors that contribute to the health of terminal lakes in the western United States.