Snowcover formation and melt: recent advances and future prospects

During the last 20 years considerable progress has been made in our understanding of the physical processes controlling snowcover formation and melt. This work provides the basis required for a better understanding of, and ability to predict, the complex role snow plays in alpine and northern environments, including, for example, streamflow, climate, fluxes of nutrients and pollutants through the snow pack, and subnivean ecology. This paper provides a brief synthesis of the current state of our understanding and critical areas for future research on processes controlling snowcover distribution, melt and runoff. A major focus is to review progress to date on the importance of the heterogeneous nature of the snowcover over a wide range of scales.