Snowmelt contribution to discharge from a large mountainous catchment in subarctic Canada

Abstract Snowmelt is responsible for much of the annual runoff and most of the peak discharges in subarctic mountainous regions. It also provides a significant amount of freshwater inflow to the polar seas, which has implications for Arctic Ocean circulation. Owing to considerable topographic contrasts in large mountainous basins, snow accumulation and melt patterns are highly variable in time and space, but the scarcity of data in these …